I Want A Girl
by Catfisha
Summary: Gluskin x OC. Kasha works as an employee of the Murkoff corporation, specializing specifically in therapy and psychology. She offers an unbiased ear for some of the patients in Mount Massive asylum, and has done so for a year now. After a number of therapy sessions with a patient by the name of Eddie Gluskin, she finds herself sympathizing with him.
1. Chapter 1

August 12th, 2012.

"So, tell me... What does the face in the wall _say_ to you, Robert?" Kasha Müller asked, keeping her tone of voice as calm as she could. She leaned forward on her desk, resting on her elbows, her hands intertwined in front of her as her brown eyes skeptically eyed her patient.

The patient in front of her, a young man by the name of Robert Smith, had been restrained to his chair. His wrists and ankles had been restrained with leather straps, his arms resting on the chair's arms. He stuttered, "I-It tells me... That I'm a _bad man._ Am I a _bad man_, ma'am? Is that why I'm here?" His voice was frail, and his body shook nervously.

Kasha's dark red painted lips turned upward into a faint smile. "No, Robert. The patients here within Mount Massive asylum are all here for _treatment._ You're not a bad man. The face in the wall _wants_ you to believe that you're a bad man." Kasha shifted her gaze away from Robert to curiously glance over his patient file. She skimmed over it once more, making sure that she'd read everything correctly.

"... _Smith has a criminal record of incestuous sexual assault, which resulted in the homicide of his assault victim; his mother..." _Kasha read, a small sigh escaping her through her nose. Honestly, this was a pretty normal thing to read on patient files. She'd seen far, far worse than this.

"Mommy always told me that... I was a good boy. But the face says otherwise." Robert was beginning to throw himself through loop holes. No matter what Kasha said to him, he didn't appear to be listening. Suddenly, he began yanking against his own restraints rather violently. "MOMMY SAID THAT I'M A _GOOD_ BOY!" He yelled, fidgeting viciously. "TELL ME I'M A GOOD BOY, YOU _WHORE_!" He roared, making eye contact with Kasha.

Kasha simply sighed, rolled her eyes, and pressed the button under her desk to request a patient extraction. Shortly after she'd pressed the button, two men, both dressed in the same medical attire, entered the room and detained Robert Smith. They took him from Kasha's office, while he kicked and screamed the entire way.

Kasha's therapist facade broke the moment her office door had shut behind the men. She stood up and walked away from her desk, pulling out a cigarette from her purse, which rested at the edge of her desk. She'd only just recently been hired as a therapist in this damned asylum about a month ago. She grabbed her lighter and lit her cigarette, regardless of the strict rules that had been placed against smoking within the asylum. "Fuck it." She said to herself with a shrug, in reference to her cigarette. "I don't get paid nearly enough for this shit, man." Her voice was naturally slightly low, but smooth. She had a rather sultry voice when she wasn't putting on that shitty, fake therapist voice of hers.

She really did dig psychology, but she wasn't anticipating _this_ kind of extreme mental instability from this asylum. Before working here, Kasha had worked as a therapist in a number of different asylums. None of them were nearly as horrendous as this one, in terms of the severity of the patients' illnesses. Not only that, but this place was absurdly strict. Kasha, upon being initially hired here, had been made to sign contracts that restricted her from contacting her family. Whatever was going on here... The head honchos of Murkoff wanted to keep it top secret.

Kasha's office also doubled as her living quarters. Opposite of her desk, at the furthest side of the room, was the door leading to her bedroom and bathroom. She made her way through the door, her heeled shoes clacking against the wooden floor with each step. She heard her office phone on her desk ring as she entered. She decided to ignore it. Fuck it, she needed to piss. They could wait. Kasha entered her small bathroom, which was as pristine as ever, and looked herself over in the mirror for a moment. She silently scowled at her work uniform. It looked too... _Granny-ish_ for her taste. She'd currently been wearing the standard uniform for the employees that weren't working in the medical labs below. A collared, white button up shirt. Although, of course, Kasha had unbuttoned the first two buttons on the shirt, and rolled up her sleeves to her elbows. Below, she'd been wearing a tight, black pencil skirt that reached down to her knees. Her employee identification card had been pinned to her chest. Kasha was a fully figured woman, and her work uniform certainly didn't hit that. In fact, it slightly accentuated her hour glass figure.

Her obsidian colored hair, naturally being long enough to fall over her breasts, had currently been tied up into a messy bun. You know, to look slightly more professional. She took the opportunity to touch her makeup up a bit, powdering her pale skin, and fixing up any imperfections that her winged eyeliner had suffered.

Shortly afterward, she went back into her office. Her phone was _still_ ringing. Ugh. Kasha put out her half-smoked cigarette and picked up the phone, putting on her fake therapist voice again. "This is Doctor Müller, how can I help you?" She answered, shifting her voice into a slightly higher pitch. God, she hated doing this voice. But, hey, it got her a pay check at the end of the day.

"Ms. Müller? This is Jeremy." Came the slightly passive aggressive male voice from the other line, to which Kasha rolled her eyes. Jeremy Blaire? Oh, great, one of her bosses. What'd she do _now_?

"We have employee complaints of your office stinking of cigarette smoke. You wouldn't happen to be _smoking_ against company policies now would you, Ms. Müller?" His tone of voice only got more passive aggressive with each word that he spewed from his mouth. He continued, "Because, well, you _do_ know our policies. Smoking in the asylum is strictly forbidden... And there _will_ be consequences if you're caught doing it, I assure you."

Kasha, honestly, was absolutely fucking baffled. First of all, how in the _fuck_ did they file a complaint so god damned quickly? That was... Almost creepy. And secondly, was Jeremy Blaire seriously _threatening _her right now over a god damned cigarette? Fucking ridiculous. Kasha cleared her throat, restraining the anger in her voice. "You're mistaken, Mr. Blaire. _I assure you._" She mocked, while simultaneously throwing the rest of her half-smoked cigarette out of her window, along with the rest of her pack. "Although, my office _has _been stinking of cigarettes lately... Perhaps it's someone in the room below mine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some patients to see."

"I really shouldn't be having to warn you about our policies, Ka-"

"Goodbye, Mr. Blaire." Kasha interjected, putting her phone back on the receiver. Fuck, she wasn't planning on staying in this dump for very long. She leaned against her office desk, looking at at the ceiling aimlessly. "What a fucking _joke_. Flipping the hell out over a damned cigarette? Unbelievable. I can only imagine what Jeremy Blaire would do if I left a bag of flaming dog shit in front of his office door." She snickered to herself, grinning. "Maybe, when I quit, that's what I'll do on my last day."

~/~

June 9th, 2013

A year ago, Kasha had sworn to herself that she would quit this shitty job. After that whole cigarette incident, Jeremy had done some investigating, and had subsequently found the discarded cigarettes outside of Kasha's window. He put the pieces together, and had confronted her. However, she once again had managed to weasel her way out of it.

After _that_ incident, Kasha knew that something was horribly wrong with this place. _No _company is that fucking strict about a simple regulation.

Kasha had tried to quit. Numerous times. But the contract that she'd signed forbid her from doing so, and frankly, Kasha was beginning to feel like a fucking prisoner here. She'd talked with her co-workers, and some of them had felt the same way. Some of them hadn't even _spoken _totheir wives of children in years. This was highly fucking alarming, and it raised all of the red flags in the world for Kasha.

Kasha sat at her desk, scribbling her thoughts away in her journal. However, she was interrupted by her phone ringing. She picked up, "Hello, you've reached Kasha Müller. How can I assist you?" She answered, putting on _the_ voice. The dreaded voice.

"Hello, ma'am? We have a patient for you to see today. He's scheduled for an interview with you. However, he's a high risk patient. We'll be issuing two security guards for your protection."

Well, _that_ sounded promising. Hey, at least it made her day a little more interesting. She'd been bored shit less anyway. She smirked, "That sounds great. Can I have his name and patient number, please? It's for the documentation of his session here with me today." Kasha responded professionally, getting her pen and paper ready.

"His patient number is 196, and his name is Eddie Gluskin. Age: 46."

Oh, boy. _This_ guy. Today was definitely going to be fun. "Thank you, send him in." She hung up the phone.

She'd vaguely heard of Eddie Gluskin from her co-workers, who'd tried to interview him before, but were unsuccessful. Apparently, he was... One of the far more mentally disturbed patients here. Whenever he left his cell, he needed to be restrained and escorted by three different security guards. One of Kasha's co-workers had been physically assaulted by him once, actually.

Kasha simply waited.

After some time passed by, finally, a knock came at her door. "Come in, gentlemen." She politely gestured, silently gagging at her own fake mannerisms, to which they opened the door. Two security guards held Gluskin by his arms, even though his arms had already been restrained with a leather strap behind his back. Once they'd sat Gluskin down in the chair in front of Kasha and had properly restrained him, using an extra restraint around his torso in addition to the normal restraints around his wrists and ankles, the two guards backed off and stood at either side of him.

Eddie Gluskin was a pale-skinned, broadly shouldered fellow. His hair was in a slightly unusual style for the patients here, being shaved bald with the exception of some black hair being slicked back at the center of his head. He had quite a strong jaw line, and an all around handsome face. One of the security guards handed Kasha his official patient file, and she read it over carefully before proceeding with the session. As she normally did. As she was reading his file, Gluskin lifted his head to look Kasha over curiously, his blue eyes wandering.

"You're very _beautiful_, you know." He said, his voice surprisingly eloquent and smooth. He eyed Kasha like she was his prey. "There aren't very many women here. You're quite an _exception._"

Kasha ignored him. Honestly, a _lot_ of patients said that to her during her sessions with them. She'd learned to ignore her patient's incoherent babbling at this point.

Kasha's mouth slumped into a flat line once she read further into his file. She'd read a lot of atrocious patient files, but never a patient file that played the patient out to be a victim. "..._ records indicate a past of incestuous trauma during his childhood years..._" She read, scanning the document over. "... _the experience was traumatically violent, as photographic evidence has proven..._" The document also stated that, in Eddie's past, he'd been known to mutilate women. Kasha would need to question him on that. Just as Kasha read that last line of text, however, the second security guard presented Kasha with an envelop. She opened it, and pulled out two pictures and a post-it note with a message scribbled on to it. It read: "Kasha – When interviewing Eddie Gluskin, present these pictures to him. Proceed with caution. It has been years since he's seen these photographs."

Kasha took a look at the photographs.

She literally had to physically restrain herself from gasping, or giving _any _kind of reaction to the pictures. Both pictures depicted two older men, with a small boy in the center of the two of them. Presumably Gluskin. In one photograph, one of the older men had been penetrating the younger boy anally while the other penetrated him orally simultaneously. In the second photograph, the two older men seemed to be proudly presenting the "work" that they'd done on the small boy, clearly showing the blood dripping from the boy's anal cavity.

Kasha sighed, and shook her head. A wave of sympathy washed over her as she finally lifted her head to make eye contact with her patient. She set the photographs down. Honestly, she felt like fucking burning them.

"Hello, Eddie. I'm Doctor Muller." Kasha began, fixing her posture. "I've got some questions for you today, are you willing to comply?"

Gluskin nodded. "For you, _darling_, I'll answer anything."

Kasha cleared her throat. "Have you achieved a lucid dreaming state during your last exposure to the Morphogenic Engine?"

Gluskin seemed to suddenly perk up, "Ah, yes! I have! I have _constant_ control of my dream state, doctor."

Ah, crap. That couldn't have been right. The documentation in front of Kasha had stated otherwise. He must have been lying... Probably telling her exactly what she wanted to hear. She wrote that down in her assessment of him.

She proceeded, not confronting him on his blatant lie. "How do you feel, Eddie? Has your mind been clear?"

Again, Gluskin assumed the overly cheery attitude. It was very obviously a facade. "Clearer than your eyes, darling. Crisp... Clean... Clear... And _fresh. _I haven't felt this sane in months!"

Kasha raised an eyebrow. "My eyes are _brown_, Eddie." Obviously, brown eyes couldn't be "clear."

Gluskin grinned mischievously. The woman was smart... He'd give her that.

"So, is that your way of telling me that every word that you've spoken to me this far is nothing but sheer sarcasm?" Kasha said, her voice getting slightly confrontational.

"Perceive me however you wish, doctor... My mind is clear. I've achieved complete control of my dreams, even! I see no reason to keep me around. This place isn't for the mentally sane, you know."

Kasha moved on. Clearly, he wasn't going to stop trying to convince everyone in this room that he was "sane" now, all of a sudden. She asked the next question, "In your past, records show that you've mutilated and tortured women. Why did you do it?" One of the security guards, at that time, presented Kasha with photographs of Gluskin's female victims. Kasha looked them over for a moment, unphased, then presented them to him. "You know, _these_ victims. What motivates you to carve women out in such a way? Is it hatred?"

Gluskin almost seemed offended. As if the photos being presented to him were absolutely foreign to him, and like he'd never seen them in his life. He frowned, "The women in those photographs are very much _alive_, doctor. They're so... _Beautiful._" He affectionately commented, eyeing the photographs over slowly.

"Eddie... You claim to be "sane," yet you sit here and try to tell me that the women in these photographs are alive? Look..." Kasha suddenly shifted, and she broke her therapist facade completely. She leaned forward, her eyes challengingly narrowing down on her patient. She was losing her patience with him. "If you're seriously trying to tell me that _these _women are alive, then you _belong _here. These women are horribly mutilated, Eddie. By _your_ hands."

Again, he seemed quite genuinely offended. Internally, however, behind his delusions and facades, he was enjoying the challenge that this woman was presenting to him. She wasn't like the other therapists. He continued, "No! No, doctor, _you_ belong here if _you_ truly believe that those beautiful women are dead! How _dare_ you!"

Kasha shook her head and sighed, giving up on that topic altogether. It was clear that she wasn't going to get anywhere by arguing with him. She also wrote this little "exchange" down in her assessment: "... _He refuses to discuss his victims, both categorically and specifically. When I showed him pictures of the women, he would not admit that they were dead or mutilated." _She wrote, putting her pen down. Now, it was time for the final question.

"Tell me about your childhood, Eddie."

She really, _really_ didn't want to ask him this question. She knew that nothing good could come of it.

Much to Kasha's surprise, he again answered enthusiastically. "My childhood... Ah, yes! _Yes._ It was a grand time, I'd say. I grew up in a wealthy, but simple home... Mommy and Daddy loved each other _very_ much, and I was a curious little boy. I was quite popular at school, too. I had quite the loving relationship with my parents."

God, this sounded like some "_Leave It to Beaver_" shit. Clearly, this was yet another lie. It was time for Kasha to get a little tougher on this guy. She wasn't afraid of him... Not like everyone else seemed to be. She then grabbed the dreaded pictures that exposed the _true _nature of his childhood.

Suddenly, Gluskin's face dropped the moment he laid eyes on the pictures.

Kasha felt anxiety bubble up within her.

Suddenly, a maniacal fit of laughter began pouring out from Gluskin's mouth. His whole body moved with his laughter as he hung his head down. However, once he'd lifted his head back up, he'd shifted into a completely different person. He looked directly into Kasha's eyes, and his gaze had been filled with nothing but sheer, raw rage and bitter contempt. "FUCKING _PRICKS!_ FUCKING... FUCKING FILTHY, FILTHY _PIGS!" _He roared, violently jerking against his restraints. He began incoherently screaming, and Kasha simply silently observed him as he had his little episode.

This man was a victim of _trauma._

The horrible, homicidal acts that he'd committed would never have been committed if the trauma hadn't been instilled into him in the first place. That much was clear to Kasha.

In her years of studying psychology, she _knew_ when someone had been _made_ into a bad person. Eddie Gluskin was one of those people. And, truly, she felt sympathy towards him.

"_Gluskin remains a frustrating interview subject; he's still trying to tell us what he thinks we want to hear, while studiously avoiding certain elements of the truth. The childhood that he claims to have remains an obvious fiction, he's claiming to have up in some kind of "Leave It to Beaver" shit, despite a traumatically violent ongoing sexual experience that is a matter of public and medical record. When I confronted him with the photographs his ffather and uncle took, he responded with a mixture of laughter and anger..." _Kasha wrote, hearing Gluskin's vicious shouting the entire time that she'd been writing and adding information to his official patient file.

"The things... That those men made me do..." He muttered, finally calming down.

Kasha looked up and eyed him sympathetically. "What those filthy pieces of shit did to you shouldn't shape who you _are_, Eddie. You are _not_ your childhood traumas. I mean that. " Whether Eddie actually processed that advice or not didn't matter to Kasha.

Kasha looked at the time, and realized that their time had been up for the session. "Alright, boys. Time's up. If you guys want to book another session with Eddie for me, that's up to you." The security guards nodded, and moved to release Eddie from the chair and prepared to move him back to his cell.

Kasha, additionally, wrote a letter of advice attached to Gluskin's patient file. It read: "_I highly recommend that Eddie Gluskin's exposure to the Morphogenic Engine ceases. If he continues to be exposed, his mental health will rapidly decline. I suspect that the exposure to the engine is doing nothing but harm for his mental health. This man needs __proper__ therapy and treatment for his illnesses, and I'm willing to provide some of that help._" She then gave the documents to one of the guards, and he nodded. He knew that he'd need to give that letter of advice to one of the superiors.

Just as the three of them exited Kasha's office, Kasha heard someone say something. It was a soft "... Thank you."

But she couldn't tell who'd said it.

Fuck, how did she even keep her own sanity while working here?


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Thanks so much for the reviews! It helps me quite a bit, honestly. I'm glad that you guys are all really digging this story so far. As usual, I'm very open to _constructive_ criticism. So if you guys have any thoughts, feel free to vocalize them in the reviews. :)

And also, don't worry, things are going to go to hell in the next chapter. ;)

September 17th, 2013

Jeremy Blaire's office had to be one of the most bland, musty rooms in this entire facility. Honestly, it didn't even look like he used it very much. Jeremy Blaire, a man in his late 30s with short, dark brown hair slicked to the side, stood in front of his barely used office desk in front of Kasha. She'd been seated in a well cushioned chair, her arms folded in front of her.

Silently, Kasha questioned if Jeremy Blaire had ever worn anything other than his dark blue suit.

His posture was a bit slouched as he supported himself by his arms, leaning back against his desk. "You've been a trusted employee of the Murkoff Corporation for long enough. I think it's probably about time that you paid a visit to our facility downstairs." He started, then shot Kasha a glare. "A part from some of your... _Questionable_ bullshit, of course."

Kasha rolled her eyes. "Is this why you called me up here, then?"

He shrugged. "_Well_, if you'd rather me fire you... Which I would have no problem doing, of course-"

"Okay, okay. I get it." Kasha knew that she would never get "fired," anyway. And even if she did, she would never be able to leave this asylum. Was this his way of trying to _scare_ her? She went on, "Just tell me what you need to tell me, and get to the point."

"What a _disrespectful_ way to speak to your boss, young lady!" He said, his voice dripping with passive aggressive sarcasm. Regardless, he went on. "Like I said before, it's time for you to take the next step in your career here. And I'm _not_ talking about a promotion, so don't get your hopes up. Today, you're taking a trip down to the Morphogenic Engine."

Kasha was slightly surprised, honestly. She'd already known of the Morphogenic Engine, but she'd never actually _seen _it. She didn't have the security clearance to gain access to the lower level of the asylum. So, why was today an exception to that? Why, all of a sudden, was she being treated like a special snowflake? Something wasn't adding up. Kasha skeptically looked Jeremy over, slight suspicion in her brown eyes. "_Why_? I'm not a Murkoff scientist, Mr. Blaire. I don't have any business down there."

He pushed himself away from his desk, holding a finger up. "Ah, but you see, that's where you're _wrong." _He started, beginning to aimlessly pace. "As a Therapist, I think it's important for you to study the effects of the Morphogenic Engine. That way, you'll have first hand knowledge of exactly what "side effects" your patients are experiencing as a result of being exposed to the engine. So, _today_, you'll be joining the team down there."

Kasha _supposed_ that made sense. "Am I going alone, or will the other therapists be joining me?"

"Nope, it's _all _you today, bucko. The other therapists here aren't... _Ready_ for the exposure." He grinned to himself, ceasing his pacing and standing in front of the seated Kasha.

Kasha wasn't getting a good feeling about this. But, honestly, she really didn't have much of a choice. They would probably kill her, or something worse, if she didn't comply with going down to the engine today. If there was anything that Kasha had learned while being employed at Mount Massive, it was to _never_ trust the words of Jeremy Blaire. Or _any _executives, for that matter. Especially that Rick Trager guy, Jeremy's little "buddy." _That_ guy was... Unique, to say the least. Kasha sighed, and shrugged. "I suppose I don't have much of a choice, then. When do I leave to go down there?"

"You're right, you _don't_ have a choice." He stated confidently, a small smirk on his face. "And, it'd be best if you left immediately. I've got some guys waiting for you by the elevator down the hall. They'll give you security clearance and escort you. We don't need you touching anything that shouldn't be getting touched, now do we?"

Kasha rolled her eyes once again, and stood up. Jeremy held his hand out to shake her hand, but Kasha ignored the gesture entirely and advanced toward his office door to leave. "I guess I'll get going, then. Hopefully, I won't get turned into some fucked up lizard thing by those doctors." She said as she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

She proceeded to the elevator, where two scientists waited for her, and began her descent down into the depths of Murkoff's hell. Little did she know, however, that she was likely guaranteeing her inperpetuity within the asylum by witnessing Murkoff's true secrets.

It didn't take long.

Soon enough, Kasha found herself walking through a facility that seemed to drastically differ from the asylum above. This environment was foreign to her. The walls around her almost resembled _ice_, being white in color but completely jagged in texture. Wait, _was_ it ice? She honestly couldn't tell. The floor beneath her feet was well polished, and her heels clacked drastically and echoed with each step that she took. Kasha couldn't help but notice the abundance of security guards down here. They'd been posted at nearly every single door.

As Kasha made her way through the rather pristine, professional facility, she could overhear some scientists speaking about their wives.

"Yeah, I have a wife."

"When was the last time that you saw her? I haven't seen mine in three weeks."

"_Three weeks_? Oh, that's nothing. I don't even remember the last time I saw _my_ wife. I haven't even spoken to her in... Oh, god. I can't even remember."

Kasha shook her head and sighed softly as she overheard the conversation, silently hating Murkoff for their disregard of their employees personal lives. Kasha herself hadn't even spoken to her family in years. Not since she'd set foot in this place. She wasn't even allowed to _email_ them. She knew it wasn't right... Everything in her screamed at her, and told her that the Murkoff Corporation was nothing but heinous corruption.

But she couldn't _do _anything about her gut feeling. She couldn't leave, she couldn't run. She couldn't do _anything._ And that, in particular, is what pissed her off the most. Feeling completely and utterly powerless, and helpless. Clearly, she wasn't the only employee here that felt this way.

"_Waylon Park, employee number one four six six, report to Morphogenic Engine Monitoring immediately~" _The intercom overhead rang out demandingly as Kasha made her way through. "Poor bastard." Kasha commented, "His ass is probably in trouble."

As the two scientists escorted her into the computer room, it was then that she finally laid eyes on the Morphogenic Engine for the first time. She could see the massive spherical hung of machinery clearly through a wall of glass, which overlooked the spacious room that held the engine. Around the engine sat a number of small pods. Kasha walked through, aimlessly glancing at the multitude of computer screens littering every inch of wall space within the room. A scientist was posted at almost every computer, analyzing the brain waves of a particular patient.

"Amazing, isn't it?" One of the scientists said, interrupting Kasha's thoughts. She jumped, startled, then turned her head to the right to see a pale man dressed in the typical blue garb of the scientists down here standing next to her. "Oh, did I startle you? I'm terribly sorry." He commented.

Kasha shook her head, "Jesus, man. You guys pop out of _no where_ sometimes..." She replied, bringing her attention back to looking curiously at the engine. "That's... That's a complex piece of machinery right there. But what does it _do_?" She questioned, silently wondering why a mental health institution would need something so complex.

The scientist grinned. "_That_, m'lady, is what you're going to be learning today. Pay attention. We'll be bringing a patient in soon." He then left her side.

All around her, Kasha could over hear scientists and doctors commentating and talking about the upcoming patient's brain waves. And not only that, but... the patient's _dreams_? They'd been speaking of the imagery in their brain as well. Kasha tried to listen further...

"Let's see... The log has the first two as _guided_ dreams. Classified as childhood, sexual, and with reptile imagery."

Kasha heard one of the scientists say, studiously examining some paperwork. What the fuck? _Sexual reptile imagery_? Now, _that_ was quite a combination of words...

Shortly afterward, Kasha heard the door of the monitoring room open behind her. A skinny, pale, blonde-haired man walked past Kasha in quite a hurry. He'd nearly bumped into her, actually. She had to move out of the way for him.

"Ah, Park. You're cutting it close, next patient's incoming and Arterial Spin's still dark. We need you at the front terminal." One of the men said, likely to the blonde man that had just walked in.

As the blonde guy, "Park", sat down at his terminal, the scientist next to him shook his head. "Jesus, Park! You were 15 seconds away from getting fired! We need you to de-bug the system for us..." The scientist seemed to get distracted, looking up from his paperwork and out into the engine room. Kasha approached both this "Park" guy and the scientist, curiously observing the scene.

What she saw within those next couple of moments deeply concerned her.

She saw a man, violently fighting for his life, against the restraints of three men. He thrashed against them viciously as the three of them pulled the patient toward one of the many pods surrounding the Morphogenic Engine.

"Ah, for fuck's sake... They've got _Gluskin_ out of his cell. Park, the Functional Imaging interface isn't talking to the ASL. We've got a patient moments away from integration, and we're blind inside his head!" The scientist barked, to which Waylon scooted his chair in and began typing on the computer in front of him.

Kasha raised an eyebrow. "_Gluskin?" _She thought to herself, standing behind Waylon, her arms folded in front of her. _"That patient of mine from the other day?" _Something told her that this was going to be getting interesting rather quickly... She looked on at the patient beyond the glass, however. She felt bad for the poor guy, honestly. After what she'd read on his file, aside from the horrible crimes that he'd committed, his past wasn't a happy one. And now, here he was, being forced against his will into doing god only knew what.

"I could call in to the chamber and ask them to delay, if you'd like...?" One of the other scientists said, to which the one barking orders to Waylon responded with, "No. I don't need another performance evaluation. Mr. Park here is going to have us up and running before we even know it. Right, Mr. Park?" Waylon was selectively silent. He continued typing on his computer, merely trying to do his job.

"Uh, Steve...? fMRI is still dark."

"You're _doubting _our friend Mr. Waylon Park? Which I consider more than unkind to to his programming skill and _considerable _dedication to the Murkoff corporation."

Kasha had the swallow the vomit ascending up her esophagus. God, ew. She was beginning to feel sincerely sorry for this Waylon Park fellow. He hadn't spoken a single word since his arrival, but this scientist was seriously kissing his ass. It was kind of... Creepy, honestly.

Kasha could then begin to hear Gluskin's horrified yelling as he thrashed against the restraints of the men, who had _still _been trying to detain him and hook him up into the pod.

"I _KNEW_ IT WAS COMING, YOU FILTHY FUCKING MACHINES! You... You _FUCKING MACHINES!_ No! No, not again! No! NO! Jack-booted _FUCKS! _I know what you've been doing to me! I KNOW what you've been- _HELP! _Help me! Help me, they're going to rape me! Rape! _RAPE!_" Gluskin shrieked, fighting against the men, until finally breaking free from their grasp. He then ran up to the glass of the monitoring room, completely stark naked.

Kasha jumped when he smacked against the glass with an unexpected thud, but she looked on at him sympathetically. "Nobody deserves this." She muttered to herself. "_Nobody."_

"HELP ME! Don't _let_ them do this! Don't let them!" He yelled, banging on the glass frantically. Kasha stepped closer. "_You!_" He shouted, looking at Waylon, then at Kasha. "I know _you _can stop this! You have to help me! You have to-" One of the men then grabbed Gluskin from behind, dragging him away from the window.

Waylon, startled, had literally jumped up from his seat and backed away. He'd bumped into Kasha as a result. Kasha gave Waylon a rather observant look, but Waylon gave no attention to her. His attention was more focused on the security guard that had just grabbed him, saying, "HEY! Calm yourself! This is a high security-"

"It's all right, agent. Mr. Park was just surprised. I'm sure he's still calm, eager, and ready to finish his work. Take your seat." The scientist motioned to the chair, to which Waylon quickly took his seat again. "Quickly, Mr. Park! A head will need to roll if perfusion monitoring isn't active when they put Gluskin in the engine. Five seconds. Four... Three..."

Kasha stepped closer, curiously glancing at Waylon's computer screen over his shoulder. Her eyes widened when she saw Gluskin's face pop up on the screen, with a plethora of tubes running out of his mouth, nose, and basically every other hole in his body. She shook her head, sincerely hating what she saw. What she was witnessing was inhumane, and unethical. To say the least.

But what she saw next only furthered her disgust. She watched as Gluskin continued to move against the tubing, but slowly, his movements ceased as the sedatives were pumped through his body. He quickly fell into a deep sleep, and integrated with the Morphogenic Engine's systems. As his head dropped, the skin on his face began to literally deteriorate and rip apart in small patches, primarily on the right side of his face.

Kasha looked away, shaking her head in disgust. She turned around and faced the scientist who had been speaking with Waylon. "I have a question. What, exactly, does this do to _benefit_ the patient's progression towards a healthy mental state?" Her voice was heavy with subdued anger.

The scientist chuckled. "Help? Oh, no. This operation does not _help_ the patients, ma'am. It helps Murkoff. What you're witnessing is Project Walrider, and the depth of it's magnitude is far greater than you can even _comprehend_."

Kasha stepped away from him, a scowl on her face. "I was brought down her today to "learn" about the effects of this engine on my patients. To "better understand" their mental trauma. Is _that_ the side effect? _Huh_?" She barked, pointing to Waylon's computer screen. "_Physical deterioration_? For what, financial gain? You people make me fucking _sick._ That patient needs _therapy._ Not to be hooked up to some fucked up machine!" She hissed, challengingly glaring at the scientist in front of her.

He shook his head, grinning. "You really _are_ an idiot, aren't you? Such a shame... I was looking forward to being in the company of a woman. But it appears that you're going to be a _problem_ to the Murkoff Corporation..." Two security guards came up from behind Kasha, grabbing her by her arms. Immediately, she thrashed against them. "_Fuck you_! Get your hands off of me!" She spat, to which the two guards began dragging her away.

"Thank you for your services, ma'am. But Murkoff won't be needing them any longer." The scientist concluded, turning his back on Kasha.

Waylon turned around, watching the scene curiously. "_Is that what happens when somebody speaks their fucking mind around here?" _He thought to himself, shaking his head. "_That's __exactly__ the reason why I keep my mouth shut around here... Poor girl._"

The two guards dragged Kasha out of the monitoring room, while she kicked at their legs with her own. "What the fuck _is_ this place, then?! What _is_ this shit?!" She questioned, to which the security guard to her right armed himself with a tazer. "If you don't comply with our restraints, ma'am, we'll be forced to detain you."

"Oh, cut the crap. You're going to "detain" me anyway, aren't you? Jeremy Blaire is probably going to order you to kill me." She hissed, glaring at the guard. After what she'd just seen, she now knew that the Murkoff Corporation was something far more vile than she'd originally imagined. She now knew that she wasn't going to leave this facility alive.

The guards brought Kasha into a secluded room at the end of one of the few hallways in the underground facility. They tossed her in carelessly, "Mr. Blaire will be here to discuss the terms of your employment any moment now. _Behave._" And with that, they shut the room's door and locked it behind them.

Kasha landed on the hard floor with a painful thud. She scrambled up and looked at her surroundings the instant they shut the door, looking for an escape route. All around her, there had been nothing but water heaters. Water heaters, and a shit ton of pipes all over the walls. No vents, and obviously no windows. Fuck. She wasn't getting out of this.

She sat on the floor with her back against the wall, sitting opposite of the door. She glared the door, waiting for Jeremy Blaire to walk in and potentially kill her on the spot. For all she knew, he could do that. She didn't know what to expect from these people anymore. Soon enough, the door opened. A couple of security guards entered the room first, followed by Jeremy Blaire. Kasha didn't move a muscle.

Jeremy knelt down on the floor in front of her, smirking. "Well, Kasha, it'd be too easy if I were to simply just scold you and tell you how _disappointed_ I am. So, I've come up with another punishment for you. I think you'll _like_ it." He said, standing up again. "Get the hell away from me." Kasha growled, her eyes never leaving Blaire. "What I just saw in there was no where _near_ humane. I was under the impression that this facility aimed to treat mental illnesses, not _accelerate_ them!" She yelled, her hands clenching into fists.

Jeremy laughed, "And to think, I thought that you'd be _ready_ to witness the truth. I guess not. You being naive isn't my fault, Kasha. So... I think it's time that we discuss your future here at the facility." The security guards armed themselves, which made Kasha nervous. Blaire continued, "I'm sure you've noticed that we don't really... _Allow_ female employees down into the monitoring room. Do you know why that is?"

Kasha raised an eyebrow. "... No? Oh, _enlighten_ me. This sounds promising."

"Well, let's just say that the female reproductive system doesn't exactly cooperate with the Morphogenic Engine. Every single woman that's stepped into that monitoring room has either died on the spot, or died shortly after coming into contact with the engine... Except for _you._"

Kasha's face twisted into a disgusted scowl. "Did you... Did you send me down here today as an _experiment_? To see if I'd face complications like the other women? How fucking dare you-"

"And _now,_" Jeremy interjected, his voice raising. "We'd like to see _why_ you weren't affected. You'll still be useful to Murkoff after all, Kasha. As a patient."

The moment Kasha heard those words, her heart dropped into her stomach. God, no. Fuck. Anxiety dispersed throughout her body. She shook her head, "Jeremy, you don't have to do this-"

"As a matter of fact, I _do._ Boys, let's give Kasha a little... _Anesthetic,_ shall we?" He said with a grin, watching as the security guards gathered around Kasha. Kasha began kicking at their legs, "NO! Fuck no! You can't do this!" She roared, to which a guard responded by punching her squarely in the face with brute force.

Kasha's world went dark, and she fell unconscious.


	3. Chapter 3

Everything felt... Obscured. But most of all, fuzzy. Kasha began to regain consciousness, but she didn't feel quite right. Something was off. She could hear the muffled screams and tortured souls that sounded like they were miles away, and the air around her was bitterly cold. She felt like she'd been locked inside of a freezer. She shifted, but discovered that she couldn't _actually_ move.

Kasha's eyelids opened slowly, but quickly squinted against the harsh light of the multiple TV screens in front of her. "What...? What is this?" She grumbled, clenching her hands into fists and attempting to get up from the chair that she'd been seated in. It was then, however, that she discovered that she _couldn't_ leave. She'd been restrained to the chair by her wrists and ankles. She tugged against her restraints, frustration bubbling up within her.

Her eyes finally adjusted to the light of the TV screens. She opened her eyes, and began frantically looking at her surroundings. It looked like she was in some sort of attic. It was a small, confined room. It almost felt like a _cell_. The wooden floor looked almost aged, but the wooden walls looked even older. The only thing contained within the small room was her, the chair she was in, and about twelve symmetrically aligned television screens in front of her. A plethora of wiring poured out from behind the mess of television screens, and they all seemed to lead to some kind of mechanism behind Kasha. She couldn't see it, however. The screens had been playing some kind of... Imagery. It was distorted, and Kasha couldn't actually describe it, but... She didn't like it. She heard this distinct _static_ in the back of her head, and it was making her... _Itchy_.

Is _this_ what her patients had been feeling?

Is _this_ what had driven them into madness?

"You're awake, are you? Good. I'm eager to begin my work." Came a male voice from somewhere behind Kasha, his voice echoing throughout the mostly empty room. Where _was_ she?

"What is this place? Where am I?" Kasha demanded, her eyes narrowing. The man, dressed in the blue garb of those damned scientists, made his way around the chair to stand in front of Kasha. He was a pale man, and his face looked slightly aged with the occasional wrinkle. He looked to be in his late 30's.

"That's not relevant. What _is_ relevant, however, is figuring _you_ out." He looked Kasha up and down with a suppressed hunger in his eyes, licking his lips. He then wandered back over to wherever he'd previously been, collecting some tools.

Kasha shuddered. God, this man was probably going to rape her or something. Why her? _Why?_

He walked back around to face Kasha, holding an almost alien looking contraption in his arms. It had already been attached to whatever mechanism was behind Kasha, but the other end of it looked... Concerning. It held a multitude of segregated wires, all of which were tipped with a single suction cup. He then approached Kasha, and Kasha scooted back in her chair as much as she could. God, no. She didn't want this. "What _is_ that? What in the fuck are you doing to me?" She hissed, anger flaring up in her eyes. But beneath that anger, there was certainly _fear_.

"Relax... This will only take a moment. I just need to..." He trailed off, his hands gliding up Kasha's thighs. Kasha had still been wearing her regular work uniform, but it was a bit beaten and tethered now. Additionally, her raven black hair was now released from it's usual bun. It tumbled down over her breasts in a frayed, beaten mess. Apparently, the men that had delivered her here weren't exactly _gentle _with her. His hands slithered over her thighs through the fabric of her now slightly torn pencil skirt, until they finally found the lower rimming of her white button up shirt. He tugged at the buttons, then rather aggressively tore her shirt open, revealing her bare abdomen to him.

Kasha was beginning to panic. Her chest rose and fell rapidly with her accelerated breathing as she looked at the man with a perplexed gaze. "No. NO! Do _not_ fucking touch you, you disgusting piece of shit!" She roared, yanking against her restraints. She exuded an angry, violent exterior... But, in truth, internally, she was absolutely fucking terrified.

The man stuck the suction cups on the soft flesh of her abdomen, directly aligning them with her ovaries. "Your aggression is... Quite alluring." He commented, his hand trailing down her right arm slowly. "But there's much work to be done. I need to study your... Reproductive organs. They need to be tested."

"For _what_?! God, all of you people are fucking insane!" She yelled, on the verge of tears as she felt the onset of a full blown panic attack begin to well up inside of her.

Without another word, the man left Kasha and retreated to the mechanism behind her once everything had been hooked up properly. Kasha didn't have a moment to think. All at once, she felt an overwhelming amount of raw _agony_ course throughout her entire body. Every inch of her, every _cell _in her body, felt like it had exploded. She jerked her head back and shrieked in tormented pain as pulses of electricity coursed directly into her ovaries.

The man behind her, operating everything, had been studying the electric currents as the shocks were being administered to Kasha. Once that shock subsided, he ignited another one with the press of a button.

Kasha, again, let out a horrible scream.

At this point, death would be _mercy._ Silently, she hoped that one of these shocks would be the death of her.

"Stop! STOP! For fuck's sake, that's _enough!_" She yelled, leaning forward in her chair, her hair falling over her face in a disheveled mess. She struggled to catch her breath, her body violently shaking both from sheer panic and the after effects of the electric shocks. Suddenly, a new male voice sounded from somewhere behind her.

"Having fun, buddy? Man, you're doing quite a number on her... And _not_ in the good way." He said with a chuckle, his voice sounding progressively closer and closer as he approached the chair. His voice was... Oddly charming. And not only charming, but disturbingly _friendly. _

"R-Rick! I wasn't expecting you to stop by. Did Mr. Blaire send you?" The scientist stuttered, his voice sounding like he'd just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar by his mother.

"_Rick... __Trager__?" _Kasha thought to herself, slightly surprised. When she used to work at the asylum... God, it was still weird for her to think of it in past tense... She'd encountered Richard Trager a hand full of times. Usually, he hung around with Jeremy Blaire. The two of them had been best buddies, allegedly. They'd even gone out golfing a couple of times, apparently. In Kasha's eyes, Trager was no better than Blaire. She wanted to bury them both in a shallow grave together.

Fucking piece of shit executive scumba- "Hey there, girly. Man, you look like a _mess_! A little _bathing _wouldn't kill ya." Trager's voice interrupted Kasha thoughts, the man suddenly standing in front of her. He was a rather tall, lean fellow. His physique reminded Kasha of a scare crow, honestly. He had long, gray hair, which had been tied into a low ponytail to rest on his back. He wore a long, white lab coat, and sported some well tailored slacks. On his face, he'd been wearing a pair of glasses. Additionally, he proudly wore his Murkoff employee card around his neck.

"_Screw you_, Rick. You know... A good fuck in the ass from Jeremy _wouldn't kill ya._" She spat, mocking his choice of words.

Rick moved to stand directly in front of Kasha. He bent down to meet her eye to eye, squinting. "You've got some balls, I'll give ya that. Are you aware that you're the only woman on this facility right now? Man, you must feel _real _special." Suddenly, Trager's hand slapped across Kasha's face powerfully, making her head jerk to the side. "And _special_ people get _special_ attention, am I right? Hey Andy, give her another shock!" Trager ordered, almost amused by Kasha's torment. He was treating this like a game.

The scientist, Andy (or rather _Andrew_), pushed the button to disperse another shock. Kasha lunged forward, crying out in agony as the ripple of electricity coursed through her ovaries for the third time now.

"Why... The fuck... Are you people _doing_ this?" She huffed, attempting to catch her breath. "Is it about the Morphogenic Engine? Are you trying to figure out _why_ I'm not affected by it's crude side effects as a woman?"

Rick clapped enthusiastically, "BINGO! Thaaat's right, hon! Y'know, Jer did send me up here to check on the progress. And, I hate to say it, but I'm a busy guy. I've got things to do, y'know. So as much as I'd _love_ to stand here and watch you scream bloody murder, I'm gonna need those test results, Andy."

Andrew nodded, and tore the printed pieces of paper away from the machine, handing them to Trager. Trager looked them over for a moment, putting his hand to his chin thoughtfully. "Hm... Well, _that's_ new." He commented, beginning to walk towards the door. "Administer something to knock her out for a while, Andy. We've gotta run some more tests on this chick." Trager said, as he walked out of the room. "Oh, and _keep her isolated_! Under the big man's orders, she's gotta be secluded from the rest of the facility."

Andrew grabbed a syringe filled with a powerful tranquilizer, and approached Kasha. Kasha, her body now completely exhausted, slowly turned to look at the scientist. "I sincerely hope that you burn in hell, you piece of shit." She growled, her voice now dry and hoarse from the constant screaming. Andrew didn't respond, he simply administered the tranquilizer.

And, once again, Kasha's world went black.

~/~

_Four hours later..._

"_Ugh... Fuck, where am I now?" _Kasha thought, consciousness returning to her once again. Hopefully, this would be the last time that she'd get knocked unconscious by someone here.

It was quiet. Horrendously quiet. And, much like the previous room that she'd been in, _cold._

She opened her eyes and immediately looked around. This time, she'd been laying down flat on her back against a bed, and her arms and legs had been spread out and restrained at each bed post. Her white shirt had been taken off completely, and had been carelessly discarded on the floor somewhere. She'd been laying on the bed in nothing but her underwear, which sparked suspicions. She'd also, predictably, been hooked up to two machines. That same tool used in the previous room was being used on her again, the familiar suction cups sticking to her abdomen. The second piece of equipment hooked up to her were two IV's, one in each wrist. _What had they been doing to her?_

"Hopefully they didn't... _Touch _me while I was out." She said to herself, looking for another human being in the room with her. She found no one. She seemed to be in another attic-like room, where both the floor and walls were made entirely of wooden paneling. This room, however, had windows. All Kasha could see was the night sky through each of them.

"Okay... Pull it together, Kasha. You need to get yourself out of here." She looked to her right to see a scalpel placed on a table, which had been directly next to the bed. "Maybe... If I can just-" Kasha began yanking forcefully to the right, trying to yank the bed over on it's side. Eventually, her efforts proved successful. After pushing and thrusting her weight hard enough, she'd managed to tip the bed over on to it's side with a loud _thud._ Well, shit. _That _was going to attract attention. The table next to it fell over with a hasty crash, causing the scalpel to fall on the floor. Kasha eyed the scalpel with determination. She _was_ going to escape.

She frantically twisted and contorted her right hand, which had been the one closest to the scalpel, and tried to grab it. The scalpel barely touched her fingertips. She wiggled her fingers around, trying to somehow hit it closer to her hand, but it seemed impossible. However, that didn't stop her from trying.

After a while, she'd finally managed to grab the scalpel and slowly and awkwardly saw the restraints off of her right wrist which the same hand. After that, it was home free for her. She cut off the rest of her restraints, and finally tasted her first sip of freedom. Firstly, she detached herself from the IV's. Then, the suction cups. She grabbed her now thoroughly stained and filthy white button up shirt and threw it on, buttoning it up all the way. She scrambled up to her feet and looked around for her pencil skirt, which seemed to be missing. "Great. So I guess I'll just be running around in nothing but a shitty shirt and my underwear. _Fabulous._" She commented, rolling her eyes and looking around the room for some weapons.

She silently wondered why no one had come to investigate all of the noise yet. That was... Peculiar.

Barefoot, Kasha's feet clapped against the wooden planks as she searched the room for supplies before heading outside. She didn't know what to expect. More than likely, she would be getting stopped by guards. So, she would need to sneak past everyone. Either that, or kill them. Or both.

She didn't manage to find any weapons, but she _did _find a document on another nearby table. She opened it curiously, and gave it a read:

~/~

"**Case Number: **831

**Patient: **Kasha Müller

**Consultation Dated: **2013. 9. 17

**Initial Date of Patient Consult: **2013. 9. 17

**Patient Age**: 28

**Gender**: Female

**Observing Physician: **Dr. Garrett Snow

**Therapy Status:** Shock therapy on her reproductive organs has proved to be unsuccessful. Something has made her an exception to the Morphogenic Engine's effects on our other (now deceased) female patients. Currently running tests and trials to determine the cause of the immunity, but with no luck. We will continue running tests on the subject. Possible infertility is suspected.

**Diagnostics:** Appears to be highly aware, despite the amount of sedatives and tranquilizing properties I've administered into her body. Even while unconscious, subject remains difficult. While conscious, she will not comply. Patient must be sedated at all times. Trans-orbital lobotomy is highly recommended to make any legitimate progress on this patient.

**Interview Notes: **No interview has been conducted, and no interview is planned. No psychiatric evaluation needed."

~/~

Kasha narrowed her eyes, a distinct feeling of disgust boiling up within her. "A _patient _file on... Me? _Really_?" She threw the patient file in the nearby trash can. She walked towards the bed and picked up the scalpel. "... I guess they never ended up figuring out why I'm _miraculously _immune to the engine's effects, then. Although, I myself _am_ slightly curious..."

God, they were even thinking about giving her a _lobotomy. _Just so she'd be a rag doll for them to freely toy with. Ugh. Vile, filthy, _disgusting_ human beings... Unexpectedly, an alarmingly loud bang sounded from the only door in the room. Kasha had nearly jumped out of her skin, startled by the sudden noise, and began gripping the scalpel in her hand anxiously. The viciously angry banging persisted against the door until, finally, the poor door couldn't restrain whoever it was on the other side any longer. The door bursted off of it's hinges, and an ominously silhouetted figure stood in the doorway.

Kasha back up, "If you come any closer, I won't hesitate to gut you. Just a fair warning." She said, as calmly as she could. Internally, however, she was anything but calm.

"And who're you, then? Wait, are you... Are you a _lady_?" The husky male voice replied, slowly approaching Kasha. Kasha backed away with each step that he took toward her. Suddenly, he began _running_ at her, and Kasha panicked. "I've been _real lonely_! I need you!" The man screamed as he psychotically swung his fists at her, to which Kasha had managed to back away quickly enough to avoid.

Once he'd entered the room, and Kasha could finally see him in the room's light, she discovered that he'd been a patient. He was dressed in the typical attire of a patient here, and even worse, he had blood covering almost every inch of his body. And there was something... _Wild_ in his eyes. This man was going to kill her. Kasha had no choice but to beat him to the punch.

He swung again, and ended up hitting Kasha on the side of the head this time. Kasha yelped, holding her face. Before she knew it, Kasha had her back against a wall. "_Fuck. He's going to kill me. I need to..."_ She thought frantically, looking down at the scalpel in her hand. He pulled his fist back again for another punch, and Kasha had been too late to stop him. He punched the same side of her face again, then kneed her in the gut. Kasha had gotten the wind knocked out of her, and she uncontrollably dropped to her knees out of reflex. "_No._" She thought, as the same man began relentlessly kicking her repeatedly in her side, knocking her to the ground. "_I'm not dying here." _

Now laying on the wooden floor, she then swung her right arm, which was armed with the scalpel, and began sawing at the achilles tendon on his left foot. The man screamed, but Kasha quickly sawed at his right achilles tendon as well before he could react. He fell down on his rump, scurrying away from Kasha. "You filthy WHORE! SLUT!" He slurred, scowling at Kasha. Kasha summoned the strength of instinctual survival and stood back up on her feet, limping towards him. She didn't even bother with a verbal response. She jumped on him, straddling him, and began stabbing down into his chest where his heart should be. His rib cage got in the way, of course, but that didn't stop Kasha from trying.

The surreal feeling of a blade grinding against someone's bones filled Kasha with a strange satisfaction that began to intoxicate her. She lifted the blade and plunged it into him again and again, each thrust progressively more satisfying than the last. Then, she slit his throat. She probably should have just done that in the first place, but _that_ would have taken the fun away.

She rose from the now bleeding out man, the sounds of him drowning and suffocating on his own blood filling the room with a guttural gargle. "Damn... You stained my shirt. _Bastard._" She spat, looking down at the new bloodstains decorating the bottom hemming of her shirt. But, she didn't have time to over think things. She needed to figure out what in the fuck was going on around here. She ran to the door, wincing as she felt the wounds all over her body pulse in pain. A nice nap and some fucking ice cream sounded like royalty right about now.

Kasha walked outside. Then, her brown eyes widened when she overlooked the scene before her. She'd been high above the rest of the facility, locked up in one of the asylum's two main towers. The view was amazing from this altitude. She could see _everything_ outside and around the asylum. The cold, bitter wind of the night blew her black hair sporadically. She took a couple of steps outside, then discovered that she'd been standing on a metal balcony. The balcony was connected to a long flight of stairs, which led back down into the asylum's depths.

Why had they been keeping her so secluded?

Even _she_, as an employee of Murkoff, had never even known that these towers held rooms within them. If her patient file was correct... They were likely keeping her secluded to give her a particular amount of attention when it came to experimentation. They needed to single her out, perhaps.

"Oh, GOD! RUN! It isn't even _human_ anymore!" Kasha heard a male voice yell from down below, his voice merely a faint echo. Kasha curiously looked down, her hands gripping the metal railing of the balcony. She saw a security guard seemingly running for his life frantically, being chased by... Oh, god. Something that seriously wasn't _even_ human. He was right.

The man chasing him was probably the largest human being that Kasha had ever seen in her life. He was incredibly broad and muscular, yet he seemed to still have a bit of a gut on him. He had chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles, and sported some camouflage pants on his muscular legs. He was bald, and looked like he had some sort of mouth lock against his lips, pulling his mouth permanently open to expose his snarling teeth. The beefy man let out a guttural roar, throwing chairs, boxes, _anything _at the poor security guard. Then, the tank of a man caught up to the guard. His _prey. _He grabbed him by his throat withone arm, and held him up as if the guard had weighed nothing. He then grabbed the guard's body with his other hand, and yanked his head off of his body as if he'd just plucked a weed from the ground.

Kasha had no idea what to think, or what to say. She'd never seen that man before in her... Wait. No. She _had _seen him. That patient's name was Chris Walker, and he was being held in the high security facility of Mount Massive. Kasha had only ever seen Walker once, and he... Had looked much different. For one thing, he looked _human._ He was an ex-military man, and he'd been placed here for "confidential" reasons. Now, he'd turned into this... _Thing._ Somehow.

"If Chris fucking Walker is loose... Something isn't right here. He was being held in _high security._ No one escapes from there." She muttered to herself, pacing. She could hear the distant screams of various employees and patients in the distance, and it only unsettled her further. She glanced back down into the yard, watching as a crowd of Murkoff doctors frantically fled the asylum through it's front doors. They were running to the front gates.

Unfortunately for them, however, Chris Walker had still been skulking about the vicinity. Walker let out a roar, and began making quick work of the poor bastards.

Kasha's mind was racing. "Clearly, the asylum is going to hell. But... What in the fuck happened? I don't understand. I... Fuck, I need to get out of here. I'm not letting some fucked up asshole that looks like he has a diet _exclusively _of steroids rip off _my _head like that."

She looked down at her scalpel, fully knowing that _that_ little piece of metal was going to be one of the only things that would probably get her through this fucking pseudo-apocalyptic bullshit alive. "Hell, maybe I should just stay up here." She said, looking back at the room. "I mean, I'd have a good vantage point. I'd be relatively safe."

Just as she spoke those words, almost on cue, a bench from the yard below came flying at the balcony with incredible force. It bent the balcony horribly upon impact and broke it off of it's hinges, sending it falling down into the yard below. Kasha, with only a second to save herself, flung herself at the nearby stairs to avoid falling to her death with the metal balcony. "Holy _fuck._ I... Okay, screw _that _plan, then." She said, struggling to catch her breath. She looked down to find the culprit of the attack, and saw the intimidating glare of Chris Walker staring tauntingly back at her.

She knew now that she had no choice.

She needed to go into the asylum, make her way through, and _survive._

There was no going back now.


	4. Chapter 4

Kasha's back slammed against the chain linked fence, the fence bending and rattling behind her upon impact. Her attacker, yet another partially mutated patient with his face warped to an almost inhuman degree, had her pinned to the fence.

"M-Maybe, after I've killed ya, I'll have my way with your pretty little body!" The patient said, his voice muffled from a patch of skin being melded over half of his mouth.

Kasha had already killed three other patients. She'd barely made it out alive all three times, but she was getting better. Her scalpel had snapped in half after she'd tried to stab someone in the throat, so she had been left weaponless now. Well, with the exception of her bare hands. Kasha's scowled at the man, "Why is it that _every _patient that I've come into contact with tonight wants to either have sex with my corpse, or violate me in some way? Jesus, you guys must _really_ need to get laid." Kasha remarked, a smirk on her face. She then jabbed her knee into her attacker's groin, causing him to keel over in pain. Kasha took the opportunity to kick him down to the ground, leaving him flat on his back against the soft gross of the yard. Kasha climbed on top of him and clasped his throat in her hands, pressing all of her weight down on him. Soon enough, she'd successfully managed to strangle him to death.

She stood up, looking around at her surroundings. She didn't know what to expect, and she needed to keep her guard up at all times. Not only that, but she needed to be abundantly aware of her surroundings.

She looked up at the tower that she'd only just descended from minutes ago, silently wishing that she could have stayed in that room. All around her, a thick fog blanketed the environment. It made seeing anything incredibly difficult. Almost impossible, actually. The air was bitterly cold, and the fact that she'd barely been clothed didn't exactly help her comfort. The flesh of her bare legs had been festering with goosebumps, her body shaking in an attempt to warm itself up. At least she had the sleeves of her white shirt to keep her upper body warm.

Kasha cautiously trekked onwards, keeping her eyes peeled for any other human beings. She ended up stumbling upon a set of basketball courts, which had been occupied by a number of patients. Luckily for her, they all seemed thoroughly distracted by their own activities. One of them had been tossing a decapitated head through the basketball hoop repeatedly. He happened to miss merely once, but it was enough to send him over the edge and into a rage. He screamed, and kicked the decapitated head with enough force for it to nearly explode upon the impact of hitting the brick wall behind the basketball hoop.

Kasha tip-toed her way up to the fence that looked directly into the basketball court. Two rather broad male figures that seemed to mirror each other identically began to come into Kasha's line of sight, both figures being armed with what looked like machetes. As they approached her, their walk surprisingly calm and collected, their silhouettes slowly became more visible. And, to Kasha's surprise, they were both completely stark naked.

"Do you see that, brother?"

"I do."

"A female."

"I would like to kill her."

"As would I."

"You can have her liver."

"No, I'll have her ovaries."

"So selfish of you..."

The two bantered at each other, their voices just as calm and collected as their walk. Finally, Kasha could clearly see them. They seemed to be identical twins. Something about them... Gave Kasha a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Shall we give her a head start, brother?"

"I think it would only be fair."

"... She looks quite cold."

"She'll be warmer inside of our bellies."

...Yup, it was time to go.

Kasha quickly turned around and walked her ass away as fast as she could, sincerely hoping that she'd never have to cross paths with those twins ever again. She ran back across the open yard quickly, hoping to not be spotted by anyone.

However, anxiety burned through her once she began hearing footsteps behind her.

She turned around, her breath heaving, to see the familiar silhouettes of The Twins following her through the thick fog.

"Fuck!" She cursed under her breath, continuing to run ahead. Maybe, if she ran back up the stairs of that tower from before, she'd be able to both get a vantage point against The Twins _and_ disappear from their sight. She would need to use this fog to her advantage if she wanted to stay alive our here.

She looked over her shoulder to check up on them, but much to her surprise, their silhouettes had disappeared. That both alarmed and relieved Kasha. This was a two on one match... And those two most likely knew this yard better than she did.

It was like two cheetahs hunting a poor, defenseless zebra.

Kasha had finally made it back to the tower. She quickly zipped behind it, and planted her back against it's brick wall. She was borderline hyperventilating as panic began to course through her. But she needed to stay strong, and be brave. She wasn't going to survive this if she allowed panic to consume her. She slid down the brick wall, planting herself down on the grassy ground. Her legs needed a break. Hell, her entire _body_ needed a break.

The first man that had attacked her up in the tower had probably broken at least one rib. Not to mention the fact that she was getting increasingly worried about her throbbing jaw, which could have been cracked or fractured for all she knew. She probably had a black eye or something by now. She didn't know, she'd decidedly chosen to not look in a mirror.

Without an ounce of warning, the gleam of a blade could be seen on her right side from the corner of Kasha's vision. She didn't even have time to react before the same gleam could be seen from her left side as well, simultaneously. And in that instant, both blade swung violently at Kasha, badly slicing both of her arms at once, ripping through the fabric of her shirt. Kasha yelled out in pain, quickly standing on her feet and pushing herself forward without even giving a glance to her attackers. She already knew who they were, and it was foolish of her to even stop running in the first place.

The two cuts on her arms bled profusely, the blood trickling down and dripping off of her fingertips. The adrenaline pumping through her veins was the _only_ thinking keeping her going, and the only chemical that kept her from passing out. The Twins, obviously, were silent killers. And they seemed to take great pleasure in ganging up on their prey. Kasha needed to get into the asylum. She couldn't be outside anymore. It wasn't safe. She couldn't stand not being able to see what was in front of her. _Fuck_, she wished that she could just kill these twins as easily as she could with the other patients. She _hated_ feeling like a useless, vulnerable, and above all _weak_ little lamb.

There came a point where she literally couldn't run anymore. Her legs had turned into wet noodles, and her body was about ready to give out on her. The next window or door she saw... She fully intended on jumping through it. The grass seemed to decline down from a hill, and it seemed to be leading her towards the lower section of the asylum. Toward the sewers. Just then, to her left, she discovered a rather abandoned looking building with what looked like easily breakable windows. She knew that it probably wasn't a smart idea to make too much noise, but she was _desperate_ to get inside somewhere.

She looked around first, making sure that nobody was watching her, namely The Twins, before grabbing a discarded brick from the ground and throwing it into the window. The brick flew through the window with an incredibly loud _crash_, shattering glass all over the floor inside of the building.

"Fuck, I _know_ I'm gonna regret that later." Kasha hissed to herself, silently cursing herself for her reckless stupidity. She carefully climbed through the window, being mindful of her bare legs against the broken glass, but discovered that the window had actually been quite elevated in comparison the the floor inside of the building. So, Kasha ended up _needing_ to hold on the the window's edges for support, which had all been littered with bits of protruding broken glass. Kasha winced as she felt the broken glass puncture her hands, but tried not to make any more noise. She dropped down into the nearly pitch black room with a soft thud.

She immediately crouched down, hoping that her eyes would adjust to the darkness soon. She snuck her way underneath a table, staying still while she listened intently to her surroundings. She closed her eyes, focusing her senses.

… She could hear footsteps. They were relatively close by, and it made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. They were slow, calm footsteps. It seemed like they were coming over to inspect the sound of the crash.

"You don't need to _hide_ from me, darling." A... Slightly _familiar_ voice said, his voice charming and calm. "I know you're here. You don't need to be alone anymore..." He continued, wandering around the room. Kasha could hear his footsteps growing fainter. He was walking away from her.

But, something was bothering her. That voice... It sounded familiar. But she couldn't quite place who it belonged to. It was on the tip of her tongue.

She slowly crept her way out from underneath the table, her eyes being adjusted to the dark now. She'd been inside of a rather spacious room, and it held a number of symmetrically aligned sewing machines. Then, Kasha knew where she was.

"_Ah, __this__ place." _She thought to herself, crawling her way over to a new hiding place. "_This is where we used to send patients when we needed them to cope with their mental illnesses. We used to make them sew to distract them."_ It made her feel better to actually _know _where she was now.

"Come now, darling... Don't be like this. I could fill that emptiness inside you." The male voice continued, his footsteps returning to Kasha's side of the room.

Great, another bat shit insane patient. Kasha looked around for something to defend herself with... She found a small pile of debris to her left. She picked up a small rock, then peeked out from underneath the sewing table to throw the bit of debris somewhere else in the room. It landed with a loud thud on the opposite side of the room.

Kasha smirked. Hopefully, that would distract him.

It seemed to work. His footsteps faded in the distance, and Kasha took the opportunity to leave her hiding place and advance further into the room. With luck, if she played this out well, she would be able to sneak her way past this man without him even seeing her.

"_When I was a boy, my mother often said to me... Get married son and see, how happy you will be~" _The man began singing, his voice as haunting as ever. It sounded like something straight out of a horror movie, honestly.

"_I have looked all over... But no girlie can I find, who seems to be just like the little girl I have in mind~" _He continued, the sound of his singing beginning to send chills down Kasha's spine. Regardless, she proceeded onward. She started hoping that he would sing more, because at least then, the sound of his voice would give her a constant idea of where he was at.

Finally, Kasha could see some light faintly showing through a thin sheep of fabric that seemed to be pinned up like a curtain at the front of the spacious room, shielding something from view. Light meant _vulnerability_, however. It was probably a good idea to stick to the shadows, but there wasn't any other way to go. She looked around, then took her chances and progressed toward the source of the light.

What she then discovered behind the fabric barrier was probably the single most horrendous thing that she'd ever seen in her life.

It was a horribly mutilated body, a _male_ body, that had been modified to replicate the scene of a bloody birth. The body had been manufactured with hunks of flesh over it's chest to replicate female breasts, while the belly of the body had been stuffed with... _Oh, god_. Kasha stepped closer to the scene, cringing. The body had literally been _stuffed_ with the decapitated head of the second body standing next to the "woman" body to replicate the bloated belly of a pregnant woman, holding it's hand while it made the "delivery." Kasha could even distinctly see the eyeball of the decapitated head peeking through one of the open seams of the the stitches. A copious amount of blood had been splattered and sprayed from the groin of the "woman" body. Insects buzzed around the two corpses, feeding on their rotting flesh.

Whoever the fuck this man was, he was by far the most clinically insane individual that Kasha had ever come across. And considering her two years of employment as a therapist within Mount Massive asylum, _that_ was saying something.

"_I will have to look around... Until the right one I have found...~" _The man's voice sang, luckily from what sounded like the next room over. God, this entire scenario was giving Kasha a level of anxiety that she wasn't even aware she could achieve.

"_I want a girl, juuust like the girl, that married dear old dad~_"

Kasha needed to get out of here. She crept into the hallway, being mindful of her incredibly psychopathic friend somewhere around here. If she even _moved _something, it would likely mean her death. She needed to be careful. Every single second mattered.

"It gets awfully _lonely_ down here, you know. I know you're still skulking about somewhere... Show me your face, darling. I only want to _love_ you." His voice echoed through the halls, almost taunting Kasha.

"_Good. Keep flapping your fucking gums, asshole. You're saving my life._" She thought to herself, skirting her way into another room.

Maybe staying _outside_ would have been a better idea...

The man remained silent for quite a while, and it was beginning to make Kasha nervous. She felt blind now. She tip-toed her way through each room, wondering where she could possibly escape from this entire facility. For fuck's sake, she _definitely _preferred The Twins over _this_ asshole. This guy made them look _sane._ As Kasha's thoughts raced, she became distracted. Without noticing, her foot harshly kicked a can on the ground, causing it to skid across the floor. _Fuck._ Immediately, she panicked and made a run for it.

But that was the _one _thing that she should never have done.

She darted through the halls, hoping to God that she would go unnoticed, but it seemed that her hopes would go empty tonight... As soon as she made a sharp right turn down another hallway, she found herself running into the back a man that stood at roughly six feet, his shoulder broad and his physique being quite built. Kasha gasped and panicked, backing away from him frantically.

He turned around to meet her eyes, and it was then that Kasha had finally recognized him.

_Eddie Gluskin._

Although, his appearance had changed quite drastically since the last time that she'd spoken with him in her office. Eddie Gluskin was the only patient that Kasha had ever truly sympathized with during her time working here. But, now... She wasn't sure if she should be feeling _sympathy _for him after what she'd just seen back there.

Eddie's face had become quite disfigured after his exposure to the Morphogenic Engine. Kasha remembered watching it all happen on Waylon Park's computer screen... God, that almost felt like a _dream_ now. The sclera of his right eye had become completely blood shot, and his left eye looked partially bloodshot as well. His crystal blue eyes greatly contrasted to the crimson blood surrounding his iris. Red rashes littered his face, the rashes being particularly worse on the right side of his face, even going so far as to slightly deform both his right ear and the corner of his mouth. Eddie had even gone so far as to make himself a little costume – One that resembled the outfit of a Groom: A blue vest with a white shirt beneath it, the shirt's sleeves being rolled up to his elbows. He'd also been sporting a pair of fingerless gloves over his hands. He'd even seemed to tailor himself a pair of pants that matched the shade of blue that his vest had been.

Once Eddie laid eyes on Kasha, something sparked in his eyes. It was something _predatory_. But most of all, it was something utterly terrifying. Kasha, still, was in complete disbelief that Eddie Gluskin had become... _This._

"I remember your face..." He began, approaching her. "Let me fill you up. You don't need to be alone anymore, darling." The sound of his voice had become slightly muffled due to the deformity of his mouth from the rashes.

Kasha shook her head. "Holy fuck, Eddie. What _happened _to you?" She sounded genuinely shocked. But pure terror had frozen her to the spot. Her legs weren't working.

"You – The _therapist._" He said, selectively disregarding her statement, seeming to _actually_ remember her. Excitement and anticipation began to boil up within Eddie in it's rawest form. It had been... _So long_. _So long_ since he'd laid a hand on a _real_ woman. His thoughts began to cloud with all of the joyous things that he was planning to do to her for the ceremony... After he'd made an honest woman of her, of course. "_A real woman... Such a delicacy._" He thought to himself as he now stood in front of her, his knife clutched in his right hand.

"_MOVE, YOU IDIOT! God damn it, Kasha, MOVE!_" Kasha internally screamed at herself, until finally, she willed herself to squirm away from him only moments before he was about to plunge his blade into her gut.

Kasha pushed herself down the hallway away from him, trying not to trip on anything along the way. Eddie chased after her, armed with his knife. "No, NO! Let me _LOVE_ you, darling!" He called out after her, sounding genuinely hurt and betrayed. Like she _actually _betrayed him by running for her life.

Kasha's foot then snagged on a wire, and it sent her falling harshly to the hard concrete floor with a painful thud. "_Fuck. I'm a dead woman now. I'm fucking dead._" She thought, trying to scramble to her feet as quickly as she could.

But it wasn't quick enough.

Eddie had easily caught up to her. He grabbed Kasha in both of his strong arms, holding her in a firm choke hold. Kasha panicked as she felt her wind pipes close under the pressure of his arm. She clawed at his arm, violently kicking at his legs, but it only quickened the process.

"Damn it, darling! _Hold... Still!_" He commanded, and just then, Kasha's body fell limp in his arms. He smirked, scooping her body up bridal style with both arms as he proudly made his way down the hallway. "You're going to get special treatment, darling. You'll be just like a little girl again..." He said, speaking to no one but Kasha's unconscious body. "You're my _prize._ A delicacy_..._ To be _savored_. Again, again, and again."

His figure faded into the depths of the hallway, as he held his precious bride in his arms.


	5. Chapter 5

Kasha's vision faded in and out, her surroundings remaining shrouded with obscurity. As her consciousness drifted in and out, only one solitary thing stood out to her: _The horrible stench of rotting flesh._

She could hear the buzzing of insects dancing through the stagnant, lukewarm air, and she felt the firm hold of Gluskin's arms under her body. Her head limply dipped back against his bicep, her long obsidian hair falling down in a tumbled mess, hanging loosely in the air as he carried her. As Gluskin moved through his workshop, Kasha's eyes squinted open to see the gruesome scene before her.

Her vision was still blurred, but she could make out the shape of a table. It looked like there could have been two more to it's right, but this particular table stood out. It was the only one that had been bathed in light. The partially metal table was completely painted in the blood of likely hundreds of people, and, better yet, the table had a spherical buzz saw attached to it's end. Kasha could feel herself being laid down flat on her back against one of the tables to the right of the lit one. She sighed, and shut her eyes again, drifting off.

Once her eyes had opened again, her head was turned to face the lit table next to her. On the table, a completely nude and helpless victim had been restrained by ropes at his wrists and ankles. The sound of the buzz saw whirring in the small room made Kasha's teeth grind with anxiety. Slowly, Kasha regained her consciousness completely.

But at that moment, she had sincerely _regretted_ regaining consciousness.

Gluskin untied the man aggressively, his arms yanking at the rope knots. The man shrieked and screamed in terror, but it seemed to only fuel Gluskin's anger. "You're just another _whore_, aren't you?! You want to leave me?! _Fine. _You're not even worth stringing up." Gluskin growled, his tone of voice being a stark contrast to the gentle, charming voice that Kasha had only just heard minutes ago. He grabbed the man by his throat, and yanked his body around to face the buzz saw.

"N-No- PLEASE! PLEASE!" The man begged, his voice broken with violent sobs.

Gluskin didn't even seem to acknowledge the man's sorrow. Mercilessly, he shoved the man's face directly into the buzz saw. Crimson sprayed every which way from his face as the man let out his final scream, the sound of bone being sawed through being the one distinct thing that Kasha knew she would probably never forget. It took an extraordinary amount of self control for Kasha to remain calm while witnessing all of this. After the saw broke through to the other side of the man's skull, cutting through his head like a knife through a cake, Gluskin pushed his body over the edge of the table carelessly. Like he'd been disposing of trash.

Kasha immediately closed her eyes and pretended to still be unconscious once Gluskin had begun making his way back over to his new prized possession: _Her. _He looked her over, scowling at her attire. "You're barely even _clothed._" He commented snidely, "Only a _whore_ would show that much skin voluntarily. This... This won't do." He said, sighing, as he scooped Kasha back up in his arms.

"You're going to be _beautiful_, darling... So, so beautiful." He muttered, his voice a haunting breeze over Kasha's face. His breath smelled like he hadn't brushed his teeth in at _least_ ten years. She wouldn't be surprised if that actually _was _the case, honestly. She didn't respond. It took everything in her power to keep her breathing leveled and calm, to further convince him that she'd _actually_ still been unconscious.

Gluskin entered a rectangular room that had been segregated from his main workshop, located only just down the hall from the previous room. This room seemed to double as his living space. On the floor laid a filthy mattress with shredded sheets neatly folded over it's surface, a single stained pillow directly at the front of the mattress. The flooring was wooden, predictably, while the walls were concrete. Chipping wallpaper decorated the walls, along with Gluskin's doodles of wedding dresses being pinned sporadically around the wall's surfaces. At the room's center sat a circular wooden table with a blood stained rag neatly placed over it's surface, likely to act as a table cloth. Next to his "bed" sat what looked like a bookshelf, with various aged books taking residence within it's shelves. The entire room was surprisingly well organized.

However, the table to the far right of the room was what was beginning to concern Kasha. It looked identical to the tables that Kasha had seen in the previous room, only on this one, there were more restraints coiled up at it's sides waiting to be used. A dimly lit lamp hung over the table, it's light flickering ominously. Gluskin set Kasha down on it just as he did before, flat on her back. Kasha decided to play it cool. If she tried to escape now, it would likely result in a blade through her gut. Gluskin secured the restraints around her wrists and ankles, along with an additional belt restraint around her torso.

Kasha, then, dropped the facade and slowly opened her eyes. She turned her head to look at Gluskin questionably, tugging at her restraints. "What is this, huh? Let me guess, you intend to _kill_ me? Wow, _plot twist._" She sarcastically spat, her eyes narrowed into a glare.

Gluskin frowned, his jaw tightening. "If you're going to behave like _that_, darling, then I may just spare you the exposition." He growled, his voice dropping to a rather low and threatening tone. It sent chills up Kasha's spine. But she wouldn't allow him to _know_ that she was afraid. If there was anything that Kasha despised, it was showing weakness toward her enemies. Gluskin ran his hand down the center of Kasha's torso, his eyes scanning her figure almost analytically. After some thought, he backed away from her bed and turned his back, heading for the door. "I'll be back shortly, darling. I know that you must be as eager as I am to consummate our love... But, please, try to _enjoy_ the anticipation." He purred, exiting the room.

Finally being left alone, Kasha couldn't repress her pathetic panic any longer. Tears poured down her face as if they'd been pounding at the locked doors of her eyelids this entire time, waiting to be freed. She gasped against her sobs, slumping her head back against the table. "This man is going to fucking _kill_ me. I... No, I _can't_ just let him do this. I have to fight back. I _have_ to. But..." She trailed off, her voice low. _How?_ Then, a thought struck her. A wide, mischievous grin spread across Kasha's pale face. She couldn't wipe her tears away, unfortunately, but the tears had stopped flowing once a renewed sense of power came back to her.

"_Maybe... I could merely play into his fantasies. If I played my part in his play, perhaps I'd eventually gain his trust..._" She thought to herself, in case he was nearby. Part of her despised the idea of putting herself in that position, however. Her pride was currently the brick wall segregating her between this master plan that she was cooking up in her head. She let out a heavy sigh through her nose, rolling her eyes. "_... I could manipulate __him__, and make him __my__ prey. I could turn the tables... Make him believe that I've truly fallen in love with him. I know how his head works... Well, for the most part. I __did__ study his patient file._" The pictures of Gluskin with his father and uncle suddenly flashed through Kasha's head, making her cringe. However, Kasha couldn't dismiss this plan. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The secret sadist in Kasha thoroughly enjoyed the idea of making her predator the _prey_... And switching the roles between them. She would need to be careful, though, and play every card right. One wrong move, and the balance would be tipped. It was time to put up the facade of "Gluskin's bride to be."

Gluskin returned into the room, shutting the door behind him. He seemed to be holding a bundle of slightly stained clothing – A dress, in fact – and it made Kasha's stomach twist with disgust. He held it up for Kasha to observe. The dress was simple, but the stitching looked a tad... Sporadic. The stitch lines could clearly be seen sewn across the dress every which way, along with some old blood stains located at the torso of the dress. And, to add to the "creepy bullshit" factor, there seemed to be a tear at the center of the blood stain... Which was, most likely, where a blade had previously been. Clearly, the dress was... _Used._

"Here, darling, I've brought this for you to change into. Those... _Unsightly_ clothes..." He regarded with slight disgust, scowling. "They don't do your beauty justice. You'll need to be perfectly dressed for the ceremony."

"Did you make that dress yourself?" She asked, then looked down at her restraints. "I don't think I'll be able to try that _gorgeous_ dress on if I'm all tied up to a table like this, _dear._" She affectionately regarded, pressing emphasis on the word. She wanted to play into his delusions. She wanted to make him truly _immerse _himself in the fake world that he'd crafted for himself. All it would take was just... A little push.

Gluskin placed the dress down on the table at the center of the room, hurrying over to Kasha's table. "Oh, I'm so sorry darling! Eddie, you _doofus_... You'd forget your own head if it wasn't already screwed on, wouldn't you?" He said to himself, undoing Kasha's restraints. However, he paused. Just as he was about to unbuckle to first restraint at Kasha's left wrist, he turned his head to make direct eye contact with her. Kasha shrank back against his stare. There was something... Horrible in his eyes. Malicious intent. He switched his mannerisms on a dime.

"If you _leave_ me, like all of those other... _**Whores**_..." He spat, his voice dripping with raw anger in a deep, low growl. "... You'll be _hung_ like the rest of them."

Kasha's eyes widened, her heart beginning to pound in her chest. Oh, fuck. The look in that man's eyes had told Kasha everything that she needed to know. And his _tone of his voice_... It was filled with so much _hatred_, such raw _malice_. She shivered, goosebumps rising all over her body. But, she couldn't allow her voice to be anything but completely confident. She needed this illusion to work.

"I'm not going to _leave_ you, Eddie. What reason would I have to do that?" She said, her tone of voice surprisingly calm and reasoning. Good. She'd pulled it off, despite the panic attack that she was having internally. All she would need to do is keep this up, and hopefully, she'd gain his trust eventually. _Hopefully. _

Gluskin's jaw tightened, and his eyes narrowed skeptically. He didn't believe her. But on the other hand, she _had_ been the only one to ever say that to him. All of the others had just run away from him. He shook his head and undid the restraints around her.

Kasha sat up and hopped off of the bed casually, looking around at the little room that Gluskin had set up here with a faint smile. "This room is probably the most organized room that I've ever seen in this damned place." She laughed, picking up the white dress off of the table. She looked over at him, "Oh... Uh, do you mind?"

He seemed genuinely clueless.

"... Erm, _turning around?_ So I can change?" She asked as politely as she could, a shy smile on her face.

Much to Kasha's surprise, he seemed incredibly offended by that. "Darling, if we're going to be married, I see no need for you to be _uncomfortable _around me whilst in your most vulnerable state! What, do you -" He scowled. "You don't _love_ me anymore, do you?" His tone dropped back down into that _horrible _growl. Kasha needed to fix this. Now.

She remained calm and composed. "No! Oh, no darling! Of _course _that's not the case!" Kasha found herself having to literally force her words out. God, she hated doing this shit. But she intended to _survive_ getting out of this place. And if _this_ is what she needed to do, then so be it. Pride be damned. "I just... Well, you know. A groom should never see his bride so _alluringly_ just before their wedding day, right?" She said, with a smirk.

That seemed to work. He smiled. "Ah, yes, of course. Me and my _vulgarity_..." He said, turning his back to her. Eddie's mind had been so obsessed and deluded with chasing his fantasies that he'd failed to notice that, rather suddenly, Kasha's attitude towards him had changed seemingly on a dime. He had simply embraced this new personality as if Kasha had simply been in a _bad mood_ before.

Kasha slipped out of her tattered long sleeved shirt which at this point, honestly, had barely even been holding together. The fabric was ripped to high hell, and the shirt wasn't even worth using as a piece to toilet paper to wipe your ass with. She tossed it aside, then slipped the dress on. It was a tad small on her, her figure being slightly too curvacious for the dress, but it ended up working out well enough. The dress ended at her knees, but the bottom hemming had been frayed and ripped... As if someone had been _running_ in it.

"Alright, I'm dressed."

He turned back around, smiling at the sight of his beautiful bride. "It looks beautiful on you, darling." He commented, then eyed the table. His tone dropped. "But there's work to be done on you... Come, darling." He gestured to the table.

Kasha knew that she couldn't show a single _ounce_ of hesitation if she wanted to make her performance believable. She swallowed every instinct in her that told her to turn around and run the fuck out of this room, and walked over to the table. She laid herself down on her back, smiling up at her... "_Husband._" Ew.

Gluskin pensively looked at the restraints, a hand on his chin. He was contemplating on whether or not to use them. He came to a conclusion. "I'm not going to restrain you _this_ time, darling. I want to _test_ you... To test your love for me." As he spoke, his right hand guided itself to her legs, lifting her right leg up. Gravity slid her dress down her leg and bundled it up at her hips. He rested her leg on his shoulder, his hand softly gliding down and up the lusciously smooth skin of her thigh. Internally, Kasha was _screaming._ But she intended to pass this little "test" of his.

"You're skin is so... _Smooth_. So _beautiful." _He commented, silently intoxicating himself in the feeling of a _real_ woman's flesh. He'd almost forgotten what a true woman had felt like... Without being _made_ into one. Every inch of this woman's skin only tempted him further. He wanted to press this woman's limits, to truly _see _if her love for him was legitimate. There was no other way.

Gluskin's hand journeyed to the upper half of her body, his attention shifting. He rested both of his hands firmly on her waist while his face dipped down to meet the delicate flesh of her glorious, pale neck. Kasha's body went rigid. She felt his rough, heavily chapped lips begin to gently kiss at her neck, his breath warm against her. Goosebumps rose on her, and a wave of chills swept through her body as she felt herself begin to grow hotter. Her body's natural reaction, no doubt. Even though she, herself, wanting nothing more but to push him away.

But the _worst _part about all of this was the fact that she _couldn't_ do that. She knew damned well that the only way that she was going to survive this encounter with him was if she stuck to the _plan._ And in order to do that, she needed to painstakingly play her part in this play. No matter _what _it took. She needed to be smart about this if she wanted to live.

His lips journeyed down to her collarbone, then back up to her neck. She could feel the warm touch of his tongue licking at her flesh, his saliva smelling putrid. But to further convince him that she was reciprocating his actions, she leaned her head away from him to give him more space to work. His teeth came out to gently bite at her skin, giving some attention to her earlobe as well with another nip. Kasha felt herself growing progressively hotter, and it was starting to concern her.

With his spare hand, he grabbed Kasha's chin and pulled her face to the right to meet his. Kasha took that moment to observe the rashes and lesions that had infested this man's face. Kasha could clearly remember what he _used_ to look like... Back when he'd entered her office. He used to be quite a good looking man, to be completely honest. But this place... This _fucking place..._ This is what this asylum _did_ to people. The exposure to the Morphogenic Engine had done this to him... _Changed _him into this fucking _monster_. Silently, Kasha felt a wave of disgust towards the Murkoff Corporation heat up within her.

If this man had gotten the help and therapy that he _needed..._

Kasha's thoughts were interrupted by his smooth voice. "Tell me that you love me, darling. I need to _hear_ you say it." Gluskin seemed to be looking down at her expectantly. If she didn't say it _exactly _the way that he wanted her to... The gig was up. Kasha felt incredibly nervous, like she was auditioning for a play in high school. She needed to gain his acceptance for any of this to work.

"_I love you_, Eddie. I would never leave you. I would never _hurt _you." She said, the sincerity in her voice sounding as genuine as she could muster.

He scanned her expression over carefully, observing every inflection on her face. Kasha tried not to look nervous. After what seemed like five hours of tense silence, Gluskin _finally_ smiled acceptingly. He brought his face down to lock their lips, his kiss slightly awkward and staled. Clearly, he hadn't kissed somebody in a _while. _So, Kasha helped him along by returning his kiss with the fluid motion of her lips against his, her unrestrained hands going up to touch either side of his face affectionately. She could feel Eddie smiling against her lips at her gesture.

His lips then left hers to return to now ravenously attack either side of her neck. Kasha couldn't control herself as her breathing audibly hitched, her head dipping back. She was beginning to lose herself in him, and it _deeply_ concerned her.

_But she couldn't push him away. _This was probably the most trapped that she'd ever felt in her entire life. She felt such a strong _need_ to push him off, because she could feel herself beginning to like it. That was the _last_ thing that she wanted. Playing her role in this play was beginning to become an agonizing task.

Gluskin finally retracted, his thumb stroking her cheek. "Now, now... We can't get _too _carried away, darling. We'll have to save that for _after_ the ceremony. Then, I promise, I'll make an honest woman of you. I'll take _care _of you." He walked away from the table, pacing. "I will _never_ let anything happen to our children. Not like..." He trailed off, and Kasha felt her heart drop into her stomach.

_She knew exactly what he was about to say. _Those god awful pictures kept flashing through her head whenever she was reminded of them. She sat up from the table and walked over to him, placing her hand on his broad shoulder. "You'll be an amazing father, honey. I know you will." She tried to sound convincing. It seemed to work.

God, this man... With _children_? That sounded like the perfect plot for a horror movie, honestly. Maybe she'd pitch this idea to a director in Hollywood once she'd escaped this place. She snickered softly to herself. Lucky for her, Gluskin didn't hear it.

Kasha wondered if Gluskin remembered the fact that she'd known everything about his past. She wondered if he even _knew_ who she was anymore. He _had_ recognized her before, but only once. Perhaps he was just so caught up in his deluded fantasies that he'd simply forgotten. Kasha was tempted to figure out a way to remind him. But... Would that break the illusion?

The door to Gluskin's room then, suddenly, violently crashed down into the wooden floor. Kasha jumped, startled. Gluskin's head snapped to identify to intruder, his hands clenching into fists with immediate rage. Standing in the doorway was what looked like a normal patient, his skin moderately mutated. He held a brick in his hand. He brought his arm back and violently threw it at Gluskin's head, the brick hitting him with a painful thud. Kasha backed away from Gluskin immediately, already knowing what was going to happen next.

However, much to Kasha's surprise, the patient had actually then chosen to attack _her_ instead of Gluskin. He ran up and grabbed Kasha by her shoulders, slamming her against the wall. "You're _both _gonna die here, you filthy fucks!" The patient spat, "Your husband killed my _brother_!" Kasha had to think quickly, because Gluskin was already advancing towards the both of them the instant the patient laid a finger on her.

"Don't you _touch _her, you filthy fucking PIG! SHE'S MINE!" Gluskin roared possessively, reaching for the man. But before Gluskin could get a hold of him, Kasha decided to trip the man and slam him down onto the floor herself. She didn't want Gluskin protecting her. She wanted him to know that she could defend _herself._

Kasha grabbed Gluskin's knife from the nearby table and, without hesitation, began repeatedly plunging the blade into the man's torso, once again feeling that slightly surreal feel of the blade grinding against his rib cage. The fact that she'd taken a liking to the sensation concerned her. Each impact sent a new squirt of blood projecting outwards as Kasha pierced the man's arteries around his heart. He tried to fight against her, but he was already bleeding out and dying. It was too late for him. Kasha then plunged the blade directly into his right eye socket, then rose to her feet. Now, there were _new_ blood stains on her white dress.

She turned around to nervously gauge Gluskin's reaction, her eyes stone cold.

Gluskin stood rooted to the spot, his jaw tight. He looked absolutely fucking _livid._ Kasha gave him a confused expression. "Aren't you _happy_, dear? I killed hi-"

"NO! You... You let him _touch _you! You wanted it, didn't you? You _wanted_ him to touch you!" He shrieked, stepping towards her. Luckily for Kasha, she had his knife still. "I _knew_ you were like the others! You're all LIARS! FILTHY FUCKING SLUTS!" He slurred, looking at Kasha's dress. He scowled, "His... His _filth_ is all over you! HIS _FILTH_ HAS STAINED YOU!_ You filthy fucking WHORE!_"

Kasha was beyond confused. It almost seemed like he was _looking _for a reason to get pissed off at her. She backed away from him slowly, holding her hands up submissively. "Now, dear... You _know_ that's not true. I only just passed your test, didn't I? Don't you _trust _me?" She asked, her words sweet and composed.

But that only seemed to push him further off of the edge. As he passed the circular table, he violently flung it off of the floor and sent it flying across the room. "YOU _USED_ ME! A filthy _slut_ like you would love nothing more than to take _all _of the attention that she can get!"

It was time for Kasha to run. That look in his eyes... God, it was _horrifying._ It was the gaze of a man who had only a mere _shred_ of humanity left in him, and even that small shred had been deeply buried and repressed. Kasha wouldn't be able to reason with him at this point. If she stood here for another moment longer, he would kill her. For that, she was certain.

Kasha frantically pushed herself towards the doorway and out into the hall, dodging any debris that she could potentially trip on as she ran for her life. Gluskin chased after her relentlessly, shouting every slur in the book at her.

"THEY _ALWAYS_ RUN! ALWAYS!" He roared, "And to think, I thought that you were _different_! NO! You're just another _UNGRATEFUL _SLUT!"

Kasha had no idea where she intended to go. With luck, she would make her way back to that window that she'd broken into to get in here in the first place. If she could get back to that first room with the sewing machines... Perhaps she'd be home free.

_Maybe. _


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! I really appreciate them. I'm actually _very_ surprised by how many people like this story. Haha. Love you guys. ;)

~/~

Kasha's legs could barely carry her anymore. And, to be honest, she wasn't entirely sure how her body had even still been operating. She needed to think _fast_, because she could surely lose her life within the next five minutes if she made a wrong move. Kasha dashed through the abysmal halls as Gluskin continued to give chase, her breath _heaving_ now. She felt like she was going to have a fucking heart attack.

What sucked the most about all of this was the fact that Kasha had to go through it all without any fucking _shoes._ She could feel sharp gravel and debris piercing and prodding at the soles of her feet with nearly each step that she took, and it was agonizing. She could hear Gluskin still screaming at her from somewhere behind her, but he sounded much farther away. Perhaps she'd finally tired him out. This was her opportunity to escape and hide somewhere.

"_Use the shadows to your advantage._" She thought, making a sharp right turn into one of the many rooms inhabiting the long, dark hallway. She found a vent within a reachable height mounted into the wall on the opposite side of the room, so she made a run for it without a second thought. Kasha vaulted over a destroyed table and jumped up into the vent, pulling herself by her arms. Once she was inside the seemingly safe confines of the vent, she could hear Gluskin begin to sing off in the distance somewhere.

"_When I was a boy my mother often said to me... Get married son and see, how happy you will be~"_

His voice was faint, and barely audible in the distance. Good. She was _safe._ For now. She needed to take a moment to rest.

Kasha found herself internally analyzing Gluskin's psychosis during this much needed down time. Naturally, she couldn't help it. I mean, for fuck's sake, she _was _a psychologist. Old habits died hard, she supposed. She couldn't help but notice that Gluskin had a tendency to switch his emotional spectrum drastically on a dime, and that it was... Astonishingly effective. He showed signs of being severely bi-polar.

And these... These _fantasies_ of his. They were so _deeply_ imbedded in his psych that he'd almost completely lost touch with reality.

Perhaps... That was the _intention._ Perhaps he _wanted_ to lose touch with reality, and craft his _own _reality. Maybe he simply wanted to disregard the actual life that he _had_ lived as something comparable to a bad dream.

"_Well, hey, he'd be completely justified in wanting to forget his life before the asylum." _She thought, remembering those awful pictures once again. Kasha had been so distracted with her own thoughts that she'd lost touch with her surroundings for a moment and, suddenly, she heard Gluskin's voice at a dangerously close proximity.

"You can't hide from me, darling... You'll run out of places to go eventually." He taunted, his voice sounding like it was now merely on the other side of the wall.

Kasha's body tensed up. If she just stayed quiet, there was _no_ way that he'd be able to find her in this vent. She just needed to wait for him to leave again before getting through this vent and out to the other side.

"I truly did believe that you were going to be different, you know. Such a shame... Such a shame that you turned out to be just another _whore._" He spat the word with intense hatred and malice, growling the word out.

Kasha couldn't help but wonder if he even knew _why_ he was so angry with her. She sincerely felt as though he _looked_ for reasons to kill people. He never seemed to impulsively kill, he _always_ seemed to need a reason. Finally, Kasha could hear Gluskin's footsteps scuffling into the next hallway over. She figured that it was probably safe to get out of the vent now. She crawled through the rest of the way on her hands and knees, then plopped down flat on her feet on the other side.

The texture of the floor was... Different, compared to the other rooms. It was a _polished_ wood. Similar to a gymnasium's floor. Wait, no, it _was_ a gymnasium! Kasha could hardly tell. The floor had been completely splattered in the blood of many, _many_ people, and the occasional corpse littered the polished floor. Along with a shit ton of debris from who knows where. The room was extremely spacious, and each movement warranted an echoed response because of that. Two basketball hoops stood opposite of each other on either side of the large gymnasium, but... That was when Kasha noticed something particularly strange.

At the center of the gymnasium was some kind... _Contraption, _and protruding from the base of it was a multitude of thick cables, all of which ascended upwards towards the high ceiling. There were two other cabled contraptions not far off from the first, and _all _of them seemed to lead up into the ceiling. Curiously, Kasha's eyes followed the cables up. Her eyes went wide with complete horror once she'd reached the cable's destination.

_Bodies._ At least a hundred of them, all strung up like pigs in a meat locker. Kasha slapped her hand over her mouth as her jaw dropped, feeling overwhelmingly nauseous. She couldn't stop looking at the scene before her. It was just one of those things that you couldn't _stop_ looking at. Each body had been horribly mutilated in an attempt to make them all female, considering the lack of women in the asylum. Each of them had hunks of flesh _sewn_ on to their chests to replicate female breasts, and all of them had their genitalia lobbed off and replaced with a gnarly slit to replicate a vagina. _All of them. _All of them were _exactly _the same.

Gluskin... He'd been doing this for a _while_, hadn't he? Over and over again. He would _never_ stop this macabre ritual, would he? So long as he was alive. She couldn't even _believe_ that she was literally looking at a fucking _sea_ of hanging bodies. She'd never seen anything like it before, and would probably never see anything like it ever again in her life. Hopefully.

She walked closer to the center cabled contraption, her shock and horror quickly twisted into raw hatred and disgust. _Not _towards Gluskin, but towards the Murkoff Corporation. She did blame Eddie for his very clearly deplorable behavior, but when it all came down to it, _Murkoff_ was to blame at the very root of it all.

If this patient had gotten the help and therapy that he so desperately _needed_, this shit would never have happened. It would _never_ have gotten this bad. But, no. To Murkoff, _profit_ takes precedence over mental health. Instead of helping this clearly severely mentally ill patient, they chose to _use_ him as some sort of fucked up guinea pig for the Walrider Project. They chose to not only _worsen _his mental health, but accelerate him into pure _insanity._

Eddie Gluskin was _not_ entirely to blame here.

He didn't _choose_ to be thrown into that pod, and he didn't _choose _to connect with the Morphogenic Engine.

It was then that Kasha remembered reading the details of his patient file. She clearly remembered reading about his previous crimes _before_ being admitted into the asylum... He'd mutilated women, just as he was doing now. She scowled. _That_ could not be excused.

But if he had gotten _help.._. Her mind kept circling back to that main point.

She couldn't in a million years excuse or condone his mutilation of women before his admittance, but she was absolutely certain that all of... _This_... Could easily have been avoided if it wasn't for this stupid fucking _vile_ corporation. Kasha's jaw tightened, and her hands clenched into fists.

Suddenly, two masculine arms wrapped around Kasha's waist from behind, violently turning and throwing her a good couple of feet away. She crashed and tumbled onto the gymnasium's floor, rolling over sharp debris. She'd been taken completely by surprise. She, once again, had allowed herself to get wrapped up in her own thoughts. She looked up to see her attacker, scrambling back up to her feet.

No surprise here. It was Gluskin. He advanced towards her almost immediately, and Kasha had no time to move. Gluskin began repeatedly punching her in the face, causing her to stumble backwards. "I try, and _I try_! But in the end, you _all _betray me! So you, my darling, get to _hang_ with the rest of them!" He yelled, grabbing Kasha and shoving her back over towards the cabled contraption. She tripped on debris and fell on her back, but Gluskin lifted her back up and placed a noose around her neck.

Kasha's eyes widened, and panic began to infest her body. This was it. She was going to die. _He was going to kill her._ Her hands shot up to grab at the noose almost immediately, her eyes making contact with Eddie's. "_Why_, Eddie?" She pleaded, in a desperate attempt to save her life. She was trying to put the facade back on, even through all of her fear. Her face throbbed with pain as she spoke. "I _loved _you. I was the only woman that actually _loved_ you. Don't you see that?" She whimpered, trying not to cry out of fear.

Gluskin then yanked at the rope, lifting Kasha off of her feet. She gagged, her hands still clinging to the rope around her neck, trying desperately to pull it off. "LIES! Still, you spout _LIES!_ I'll hear none of it! You..." He trailed off, looking away. He then yanked the rope harder, pulling Kasha further up. Kasha could feel her wind pipes being constricted, and she was starting to feel the effects of strangulation.

"PLEASE!" Kasha choked out frantically, dropping the facade. She couldn't _handle _it anymore. Her world was beginning to turn black. "Just – _PLEASE_ – look at what you're doing! _Realize it!_ -" She gagged, losing the air required to form a proper sentence. She couldn't speak anymore. She'd lost all of the remaining air in her lungs.

Memories of her life had begun to pass through her mind as her vision grew darker and darker. Memories with her sisters, back at home in California... Playing in the sun, graduating high school together... Watching her sisters all get married... Kasha smiled softly, and she felt a warmth in her chest. She was ready to die. She was ready. _Anything_ but this place. _Anything_ but Eddie Gluskin.

It was then that, much to Eddie's surprise, the knot of Kasha's noose began to loosen. With the addition of Kasha's weight, the knot quickly untied, and Kasha was sent falling back down towards the floor. Kasha fell from about ten feet up in the air, so the landing wasn't going to be pretty. She collapsed onto a heap of corpses, luckily, but the wind had still been knocked out of her. She violently gasped for air and grabbed at her throat, in complete disbelief of what had seriously _just_ happened.

As Kasha's world came back to her, the first thing she felt was an overwhelming feeling of miserable _dread. _She was _so ready_ to die... But, no. Clearly, it wasn't her time yet. _Fate be fucking damned. _She didn't have the energy to stand or try to scramble away from the now approaching Eddie. Honestly, she didn't even _care_ anymore. If he was going to kill her, fine. Mutilate her? _Fine._ If it meant getting her out of this hell hole, then so be it. She laid there, eyes open, staring at the ceiling as she regained her breathing. Eddie stood next to her, his body looming threateningly over her. He looked down at her, but did nothing. He seemed to be... _Thinking. _Pondering. He lifted his foot, and hovered it over Kasha's head. He was contemplating on whether or not to finish her off, here and now.

Kasha lazily looked up at him, their eyes meeting, her voice muffled against the bottom of his shoe. "Do you... Remember who I am?" Kasha croaked out, her voice flat and apathetic. She was sincerely disappointed that she hadn't died. But if he was going to finish her off now, she wanted to die with closure.

Eddie narrowed his eyes, thinking for a moment. Then, it came to him. _The therapist._ It was difficult for him to remember at first, considering that he'd seen _many_ therapists during his stay in Mount Massive. His only way of remembering her was...

"Do you remember what I said to you, Eddie? After I... Saw those pictures?" She asked, "You thanked me after I said it to you. Do you remember that?" She normally would have been reluctant to mention the dreaded pictures in fear of angering him, but right now, she didn't care. If she died, she died. So be it.

He did remember. It had been the only way that he was able to distinguish her from the other therapists. Because her words... Seemed to hold _weight._ Unlike all of those other miserable jack-booted fucks. That day, he left her office and carried those words with him. Eddie was silent for a long time, leaving his foot hovering over Kasha's face the entire time. Finally, he recited Kasha's words back at her.

"..._What those filthy pieces of shit did to you shouldn't shape who you are, Eddie. You are not your childhood traumas. I mean that..._" He recited, looking away. He began pressing his foot against Kasha's face.

"Eddie, before you kill me, I need you to realize something. _Murkoff _did this to you. You were already a sick bastard before, but those pieces of shit men, your father and uncle... Eddie, they _made_ you that way. _Please_ realize that. You've allowed your traumas to consume you and morph you into this... This _monster._ Some part of you must realize that. Some shred of humanity _somewhere_ in you still. You just don't want to face it. You just want to keep living in your fantasy world."

Eddie could have shut her up and killed her in the middle of her speech, but he didn't. He didn't even seem like he was entirely _here_ at the moment. He gazed off, deep in thought, his face twisting into a scowl. He then took his boot off of her face, and stepped away from her silently. "The things that they did to me... When I was _small_..." He began, disregarding everything else she'd said, his hands grabbing at his head. It was like he was trying to _physically_ push the memories back into is head with his hands. Kasha didn't move a muscle.

He then knelt down, repressing everything that he possibly could to refrain from a full blown panic attack as the memories from his childhood began to resurface. His _reality._ "I didn't realize how... How _FILTHY_ it was..." She'd never heard anyone spit out a word so hatefully before. "Only that it _hurt..." _His voice dropped into a mere whisper as he sat there, holding his head, crouching against the floor.

Kasha couldn't believe her luck right now. Honestly, she _hated_ her luck at the moment. The fact that he hadn't killed her yet in a fit of a psychotic rage was something truly miraculous, and disappointing. She simply looked on as Eddie bordered on an emotional breakdown. She'd triggered him. She needed to stabilize him again.

"Eddie, _calm down. _You're not there anymore. They can't hurt you anymore." She said, her voice still a pathetic croak. "... If you escaped this asylum with me, perhaps you could get your _revenge _on them, even. Rid the world of their _filth._" She suggested, silently cursing herself for doing so. She felt like she was manipulating him again.

Eddie seemed to perk up. He lifted his head to meet her gaze, a small smirk on his face. "... Their _filth_ is where all filth originated. Darling, would you truly do that? _With me_?"

Oh, god. She was going to need to put the facade up again. "Yes, dear. Of course. If that's what you need to... Get _closure_, then of course. But we'll need to have the ceremony first, won't we?" She didn't even know why she was bothering anymore. She should have just said something to completely piss him off, so that he could put her out of her misery. But _something_ still willed her to live...

God, w_hy couldn't she have just died when he'd hung her._

Eddie then walked over to Kasha, scooping her up in his arms and carrying her off somewhere.

"What're you doing...?" She croaked out, coughing, as her wind pipes began expanding once again. "... You could have just finished me off right there. What stopped you?" She was inadvertently asking him to kill her. _Tempting_ him.

He found the question to be rather peculiar. "I _should _have, shouldn't I? But..." He smiled, contemplating it for a moment. He brought Kasha back to his living space, this time placing her on the dirty mattress as opposed to the table with restraints. "But you see, darling... I reacted quite _hastily_ and _brutishly._ I wasn't thinking clearly. Sometimes I get... _Upset._" He emphasized, looking away.

"Yeah, _that's _an understatement." Kasha commented, not particularly caring about holding up the facade anymore. Being so close to death had made her realize exactly how much she would have rather preferred it.

Eddie knelt down beside her, frowning. He held a finger up, "Now now, darling. You're going to need to _behave_. I won't tolerate that kind of an attitude in my beautiful bride. It's _unsightly_ and unbecoming of a woman."

"What, to have a _personality_? Is that what you consider to be "unsightly" on a woman? Hm?" She truly was asking for it.

Eddie growled, his temper flaring up once again. "I'm _trying_ to be patient, darling. But you're making this incredibly difficult for me. We need to prepare for the ceremony." He stood up again, then glanced over his shoulder at her. He seemed to have already been pretending like the previous conversation had never happened.

It was then that something struck Kasha. A thought. "_If I get killed in here, by this idiot, then I'll never get to see my sisters have children. I'll never have grand children. God, I'll never..." _She trailed off, the will to live and survive beginning to spark back into her. The only thing that was giving her motivation to _survive _right now was the thought of her sisters, and potentially seeing them again. All she wanted was to hug them, and babysit their children in the future.

… Enough of this depressing, fatalistic attitude. _She needed to survive this. For them._

Kasha sat up as he began walking out of the room. "What do we need to do to prepare for the ceremony? Can I help?" She asked enthusiastically, masking herself in the facade once more.

He stopped. He turned back around to face Kasha, a mischievous smile on his face. "... We're going to need an _audience_, darling. It'd be an awfully lonely wedding without any guests! So we're going to... _Make_ guests." He grinned. "With how you handled that filthy pig earlier, I suppose you could help me. Let's go make _friends_, shall we?" Everything about this was twisted. But, Kasha kind of dug it... In a weird way. It was hauntingly precious.

"So you'd like me to help you murder people and tie them up to chairs, then?" She asked, smirking.

"Oh, they won't be dead. But you've got the right idea. Come, darling." His voice then dropped again. "But if _any _of them touch you..." He growled, trailing off.

"What will you do, hang me again? I can't really incapacitate someone without them touching me, you know. People _do_ like to fight for their lives." She said sarcastically, but charmingly. The fact that she was now completely okay with harming people... It didn't sit well with her. This place _changed_ people. Kasha now realized that. She realized that when she first _enjoyed_ the grinding sensation of a blade against bone.

"And then after the ceremony... Oh, darling, I can't wait! We'll rid the world of it's _filth_!" Eddie exclaimed, making his way back out into the hallway. Kasha followed. She _knew_ that it was probably a horrible idea to... Implement that idea into his head in the first place.

You know, the whole "elope together and slaughter his father and uncle" idea.

This wasn't going to end well.

Kasha had dug her grave far too deeply with this man. After that little... _Breakthrough_... There was no going back now.

Kasha was in this for the long run.


	7. Chapter 7

Eddie had set up his own little aisle way, complete with an array of chairs for the "guests" and audience to sit in. At the end of the aisle, he'd propped up a mannequin to replicate the "bride," which was complete with even a wedding dress. Behind the "bride" was a wooden plank, which had a picture of an old Caucasian man nailed to it. Probably to replicate the "priest" for the wedding ceremony.

Kasha walked into the room, silently freaking the fuck out at the sight of the elaborated room. "Well, _you've _been busy." She commented, chuckling, as she slowly walked down the aisle.

Eddie was off to the side, aggressively wrapping a rope tightly around a man's corpse, tying it to one of the chairs. "Well, darling, what kind of _Groom_ would I be if I didn't provide my beautiful wife with a place to hold our ceremony? I _am_ going to take care of you, you know... _And _our children."

Kasha cringed. _Children._ Good god. She decidedly ignored that comment. "So, do you need any help?"

"With what?"

"You know, gathering an audience."

He frowned. "I know that I suggested that before, darling, but I've given it some more thought. I don't want you to be covered in blood on our wedding day. To be covered in the... _Filth_... Of _other_ men." He growled, yanking the rope into a tight knot out of sudden anger at the very thought. He then cast a glance at Kasha, "You... Must be _perfect_ for the wedding day."

Kasha frowned. But, despite her disgust at his sexist attitude, she decided to play it safe and just act in his favor. She'd lately stopped using the "facade" as much. Mostly because she was literally so sick of it that she couldn't portray it anymore, but also because she found that after that little... _Discussion_ that her and Eddie had back in the gymnasium, that he'd now seemingly become slightly more tolerant of her naturally snarky personality.

"Aw, c'mon!" She pleaded. "I have nothing better to do. And, plus, I'd hate to see you doing _all _of the work for the ceremony by yourself. I promise I won't get the dress dirty. You don't need to draw blood from someone in order to _kill _them, after all..." She winked.

Eddie thought on it for a moment. He still didn't want her to, but she certainly had a way of convincing him. "... _Fine._ But if even a _spec_ of dirt or blood gets on your beautiful dress..." He paused, making eye contact with her. "You'll be just another _**whore.**_" He growled, narrowing his eyes.

Kasha shivered. But, nonetheless, she nodded. "Okay, that's fine. Fair enough. Just... Wait here. I'll bring in someone. Actually, perhaps I'll leave a few alive... Just so we can have some _screamers._" She grinned, turning to walk out of the door centered at the entrance of the aisle.

"NO!" Eddie yelled, grabbing a chair and flipping it over. "I will _not_ allow any interruptions or... _annoyances_ during the ceremony. Leave them all silent, darling. Please."

Kasha threw her hands up as she backed out of the room. "Okay, okay! Sheesh. No need to get all _excited_, bucko." She mumbled the last part rather quietly to herself as she turned around, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway.

It didn't take long for Kasha to find someone. A variant, with rashes and lesions all over his body so bad that they made Eddie's lesions look fabulous, dashed across the hall to dart into another room. Kasha watched him run, and smirked. First victim. She never thought that, for once, _she _would be the predator in this asylum. It was truly a surreal feeling. And, honestly, she hoped to keep it this way.

She ran down the hall, then ran into the room where her prey had run off into. She was surprised, however, to find that the variant had been expecting her. He waited next to the door, anticipating her entrance. And once she did enter, he slammed his fist into the side of Kasha's face.

Kasha, being taken by surprise, stumbled over before regaining her balance. That punch had actually hurt her _far_ more than it should have, considering that she'd still been recovering from the numerous punches that Eddie had landed on her face previously.

"FUCK!" She yelled, rubbing her face. "_Why_ does everyone in this god damned asylum _insist_ on punching me in the fucking face? Are you kidding me? God, I'm _so _glad that I get to kill you." She commented, in complete annoyance as she felt her face throb.

"Y-You can try, you stupid bitch! You won't catch me!"

Kasha charged at the variant, who had fortunately for her made the stupid decision of perching himself right by a corner. She grabbed the variant by his shoulder and shoved him into the corner, kneeing him squarely in the groin not once, but _three_ times. The variant's hands shot down to his groin, crying out in pain. But Kasha needed to shut him up. She clasped her hands tightly around his throat and began shaking him, her nails digging into the flesh of his neck, piercing the skin. He fought against her, kicking her legs with his own, and clawing at her arms. Within a couple of minutes, however, the variant's body went limp in Kasha's hands. "God, _that_ could have gone a bit smoother." She commented, rubbing her sore cheek. Hopefully, Eddie wouldn't get mad about that.

Kasha grabbed the variant's lifeless corpse and flung him over her shoulder, lugging the heavy body out of the room. She made her way back into the ceremony room, huffing with the strain of carrying so much weight. "These fuckers are heavier than they look." She complained, slumping the corpse down into one of the chairs. Eddie, who had the rope coil, quickly walked over and started wrapping the rope around the body.

Kasha stood back, her arms crossed. "Why are you wrapping the rope around them? They're dead. They're not going anywhere."

"They _not_ dead. They're... They're our witnesses." Eddie snapped, tying the knot. "They're... _Asleep._ And when they wake, we can't have them leaving before the wedding reception, now can we?" He kept his back to her as he fiddled with the rope.

Kasha felt a pang of pity wave through her. Eddie was too far gone. All of the therapy in the world would never be able to "fix" him at this point. He _truly _believed that these variants were still alive, somehow. Even though he himself had killed one of them.

Kasha remembered reading something on his patient file that matched this behavior. He'd mutilated all of those women and killed them, but he apparently denied that the women, his victims, were even dead at all.

It was clear to Kasha that his psychosis was very, _very_ deeply rooted. More deeply than she'd originally thought. She shook her head, sighing. "... You're right, Eddie, they're just sleeping." She said, rolling her eyes. Even though, obviously, she knew that they weren't "sleeping."

Eddie then turned around to eye Kasha up and down, making sure that her dress hadn't been ruined during the scuffle with the variant. Not a spec of blood. Good. But then, his blue eyes wandered up to her face. He scowled. He approached Kasha, his hand lifting caress the side of her face. The expression on his face drastically contrasted his affectionate touch, however. He looked _furious. _

"Did he... Did he _do_ this to you, darling? _Did he touch you?" _He growled, stroking her cheek with his hand.

"Yeah, he took me by surprise and managed to punch me. But, I just strangled him. So it worked out." She said it so _casually._ This place had changed her. For that, she was certain.

But Eddie's expression only seemed to darken. "You _let_ him touch you?" He hissed, sheer malice in his voice. Kasha recognized that tone of his voice. He was on the verge of a mental blowout. Again. If Kasha didn't defuse him within the next couple of seconds, she would likely lose her life.

"No, honey! Of _course_ not!" She started, wearing the facade once more. She needed it right now. "Why would I ever want any other man's touch? He _attacked_ me, dear. I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have allowed him to lay a finger on me."

Eddie's hand moved from stroking her swollen cheek to grasp at her throat, his fingers clamped tightly. Kasha gasped. "You try my _patience_, darling. Again and again, you let these men _touch_ you. You want them to, don't you? You _want_ their attention! What, is it me? I must not be _good enough _for you anymore, you filthy fucking _SLUT!_" Eddie gripped her throat tighter.

Oh, god. Not _this_ again. For some reason, he seemed to favor strangling her. I mean, for fuck's sake, she'd only _just_ survived nearly dying when he tried hanging her from the rafters. It was then that Kasha was reminded of that conversation that she'd had with him, shortly after she'd been saved by a stroke of miraculous luck. It _seemed _like Kasha had gotten through to him at that time...

She was started to get better an pacifying him.

Pacifying Eddie Gluskin was certainly an acquired skill. But, once you'd mastered it, he was fairly easy to defuse. He seemed to have a repetitive cycle of anger, anyway. The same things _always _got him going. As a psychologist, it was incredibly easy for Kasha to realize this.

Kasha brought her hand up and gently placed it on Eddie's forearm, stroking his arm affectionately as she made eye contact with him. "Eddie... Remember what I said: _You are not your childhood traumas. Do not allow your traumas to control you."_ She said, once again reciting what she'd said back in her office to him. She spoke with a surprising softness to her voice. Kasha could be sweet when she _tried_ to be.

Eddie paused, his grip loosening ever so slightly. "Shut up. _SHUT UP!_" He yelled, looking away. It was hard for Eddie to think through his blind rage. But, part of him knew that _those_ words in particular would always hold weight. However, in his current state of mind, he legitimately couldn't rationalize his actions. He wasn't _capable_ of rationalization anymore.

Kasha could tell that she'd gotten through to him. At least, slightly. She felt his grip loosen. So, she continued. "You don't want to kill me, Eddie. You'll regret it. You'll be _alone_, in a building filled with nothing full of _ungrateful sluts._ Remember what we talked about in the gymnasium? Have a clear mind, Eddie. _You love me_, right? We're already so close to having the ceremony... Have you ever held a ceremony before?"

That last question in particular stuck out to Eddie exceptionally. _Have you ever held a ceremony before?_ The question rang through his head multiple times. He realized, then, that he'd never had one. None of those... _Sluts_ had ever gotten this far with him. They always ran, they would _always _choose death over being with him. But this woman...

He let go of her throat, and turned his back on her. He began walking out into the hallway, his annoyance still obvious. He externally seemed to disregard most of her words, but internally, he thought them over. "Come, darling. We still have more guests to collect. We don't want them being _late_ for the ceremony." His voice was still heavy with anger, and Kasha could hear him breathing in audible huffs through his nose.

Kasha, surprised, grabbed at her throat in disbelief. That _worked? _Shit, she was getting better at this! This was one of those instances where she was actually _grateful _for all of those agonizing years in college. Those years and her knowledge of the human psych had just saved her life. Again. She followed after Eddie, walking next to him. "Perhaps if we collect them together, _you_ can keep their hands off of me. With you around, they won't be able to."

Eddie didn't respond. He was still fuming. He wasn't used to the whole "calming down" process. He was used to his normal routine: Get enraged, kill them, and hang them from the rafters. This, right here, was breaking his routine. And he felt incredibly uneasy about it. _All he wanted to do was kill her._

But, each time he wanted to, and _truly meant to_, she somehow... Talked him out of it. Each and every time. Silently, Eddie cursed the loose knot of the rafter she'd been hanging from only an hour ago. If only she'd died hanging there... _If only. _

It was then that the both of them spotted a variant at the same time. Kasha looked at Eddie, then silently gestured with a nod of her head for him to go first. Kasha knew that Eddie needed to take out some pent up aggression. So, she'd let him have this one.

Eddie just needed to... _Kill _something. He would need to pretend that this variant was Kasha. He barreled down the hallway after the variant, who ran frantically for his life, shouting as he ran: "NO, NO! God, NO! Spare me!"

Kasha smirked as she watched Eddie haul ass after his new found prey. She simply walked behind him, looking onward at the scene. It was too bad that she didn't have any popcorn. Kasha watched as Eddie practically _pounced_ on the poor bastard, and proceeded to violently thrash his fists into the man's face. Kasha finally caught up with them, watching with her hands on her hips. The man underneath Eddie clawed desperately at Eddie's face, fighting for his life. "GOD, NO! WHY?!" He howled, but Eddie decided then that he needed to be silenced. He took out his knife and stabbed him in the gut repeatedly... Or rather, _excessively. _

Eddie was pretending that the variant beneath him was Kasha. He needed to... He needed to _release_ the craving somehow. He _needed _to. This woman had talked her way out of her death more than once now, and it was sincerely fucking with his head. Even though the variant had died as a result of Eddie's brutal beating, Eddie still continued to plunge his blade into the variant's corpse.

Kasha watched, frowning. She knew what he was doing. So, she remained silent. She let him do his thing. I mean... Whatever worked, right? Therapy was therapy. After enough stab wounds to reduce the variant's torso into a pulpy mess, Eddie finally rose, blood slathered all over his lower half. He turned to look at Kasha, the gleam of a sadist in his blue eyes. Kasha simply returned his gaze, her eyes blank and unphased. She'd become desensitized to all of this crap, honestly.

"Don't touch him, darling. He's... _Messy._ He'll get his filth all over you." Eddie said, huffing, his voice shaky. He grabbed the variant by his heels and began to drag him back to the ceremony room, the variants' intestines threatening to leak out.

Kasha walked with Eddie in silence. Then, she looked over at him. "Do you feel better now? Did that help?"

He didn't respond. To Kasha, that simply meant that he didn't want to _acknowledge _that he needed any kind of "help." He wanted to pretend like it never happened. And, Kasha was willing to bet money that he was going to pretend that his new victim was still alive when they got back into the ceremony room, too.

Once they'd returned, Eddie propped the corpse up in a chair. As a result, gravity made some of his intestines collapse out of his body. His large intestine hung out of him partially, slowly sliding down his leg. Eddie seemed to ignore it, and began wrapping the rope around him. "You're going to have to be _quiet_ when the ceremony begins... We can't have you making such a _mess_ throughout the entire thing." Eddie muttered in the corpse's ear, tying the knot.

God, this guy was so far gone. And, of course, Kasha was right with her predictions. He was pretending that the victim was still alive, regardless of the fact that his intestines were literally _falling out._

"How many more guests should we be getting? Do you want to fill up the rest of the seats?" Kasha asked, looking at the ten or so empty seats left.

"I would like to, yes. We need a full house for such a momentous occasion, after all." He winked, then walked back out into the hallway. God, this was probably going to take a wile.

~/~

It seemed like an eternity had passed, but in reality, it had only been about two hours. Kasha had to let Eddie handle the rest of the guests. She didn't want to risk triggering him into yet another rage filled episode again. He liked killing far more than she did, anyway.

Kasha waited at the alter, the fake mannequin bride being pushed aside. Kasha took it's place. She felt _incredibly_ awkward. She silently wondered how he was going to do all of this, seeing as... Well, they didn't _have_ anything to actually play out a wedding ceremony with.

While she waited for Eddie to return with the last guest, she looked out into the sea of corpses with a slightly morbid smile. "Well, shit. I never imagined that my wedding would be like _this._ How... _Creative._ And fitting." She snickered to herself, hearing Eddie's heavy footsteps now clambering down the hall in echos. Shortly after, Eddie returned with the last corpse thrown over his broad shoulder. He quickly tied the last one to the remaining empty chair, then eagerly marched up to the makeshift alter.

He stood opposite of Kasha, a slightly crooked smile on his lesioned face. "_I can't wait to tell my sisters about this shit over some drinks later." _Kasha thought, smirking. She made eye contact with Eddie, who seemed to be figuring out how to go about this. He almost seemed _nervous_, honestly.

He looked at the picture of the "priest," then began speaking _for _the priest in an exaggerated voice. It seemed like Eddie had probably rehearsed this by himself a couple of times.

"We're gathered here today to celebrate the wedded union of Eddie Gluskin, and the beautiful Kasha Muller. We celebrate the communion and partnership of their now unified marriage..." Kasha spaced out, finding the entire speech dreadfully boring. But she _did_ find Eddie's impersonation of the priest to be thoroughly amusing. She tried not to laugh. "... Do you, Kasha, take Eddie to be your dearly beloved husband?" Eddie said, his impersonation sounding more like a caricature.

It was time to use the facade again. She nodded, with a smile. "I do."

"Do you, Eddie, take Kasha to be your dearly beloved wife?" Eddie then shifted back to his normal, smooth voice. "I do."

He switched back to the priest's voice. "Then by my word of law, I now name you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride." Eddie then leaned in, and Kasha had to physically restrain herself from leaning away from him.

She still needed to play her part. If she ever wanted to see her sisters again, that is. Holy shit, she couldn't _wait_ to tell them about all of this crazy crap. Kasha leaned towards Eddie, and their lips connected in a sweet kiss. Eddie's arms then wrapped around Kasha's waist, dipping her down slowly like he'd probably seen in those old, corny 1940s movies. He was literally _acting _out his fantasies right now.

Kasha's mind suddenly flashed back to that one time in Eddie's living space, when he'd decided to "test" her trust by having some fun with her neck... With his lips. She remembered the reaction that her body warranted, and how deeply it had concerned her at the time. Eddie's familiar chapped lips against hers again reminded her of the occasion. She was surprised by the romantic gesture of dipping her back like this. Slowly, he brought her back up.

Eddie felt happy, for once. He actually felt a sense of happiness, mostly because, for once, one of them hadn't run away. But _also_ because now, he was thinking of a variety of different ways to kill her. Maybe he could hang her like an exceptional trophy in the gymnasium, in her wedding dress... She could be perched in the center, to stand out from the rest of the hanging corpses.

All the while, Eddie looked into Kasha's eyes affectionately. Despite plotting ways to kill her in his mind. "I love you, darling. Now... All that's left is the _conception._ The birthing is _never_ easy, I know... But just try to _endure." _He hummed, kissing his new wife once more on the lips.

Kasha smiled, despite internally vomiting. "I love you too, honey. I can't wait to have your children." Oh my _god_. Out of everything that she had to force herself to say during her stay here, _that_ had to be the worst. In truth, Kasha fucking despised children. The little brats...

Eddie then released his embrace and grabbed Kasha's hand in his, leading her back down the aisle. In Eddie's mind, every single corpse tied to those chairs was currently alive and applauding the two of them as they exited, throwing celebratory flowers at them. Kasha followed after him.

Eddie led her to his living space once again. But, this time, he'd... _Re-arranged_ things. Kasha felt her stomach twist in disgust. He'd moved his already filthy mattress to the center of the room, and he'd managed to find a multitude of candles and arrange them around the room to create an "atmosphere." He'd also spread long dead, wilted flowers all around the mattress. Kasha looked at the scene before her with widened eyes.

Oh, god. _Did he seriously intend on having sex with her? __**And **__knocking her up?_

She... Fuck. She couldn't let this happen. She didn't want this.

Her nerves began to kick up again, and she could feel herself begin to shake with anxiety. Everything in her wanted to just bolt out of that god damned door and never look back. This little fantasy of his had gone _too _far.

Eddie practically _yanked_ her into the room when her walking suddenly stunted at the doorway.

"I know you must be _nervous_, darling. You must be as eager as I am to consummate our love." He gestured to the mattress, wanting her to take a seat.

Oh, god.

No.

_**No.**_


	8. Chapter 8

Anxiety. All Kasha felt was _anxiety._

Kasha eventually forced her legs to move. If she hesitated for too long, it would certainly mean her death. She knelt down beside the dirty mattress, turning her head to look at Eddie.

It was a nervous look that silently asked: _Are you sure? Right now?_

Eddie met her eyes and took in the complete despair in her eyes. _She didn't want to do this, did she? _Eddie felt his heart fall into his stomach, and he felt his body begin to flare up with repressed rage. "Darling, is... Something the matter? I thought that you were just as eager as I was to _grow our family._ What- Are you..." He trailed off, narrowing his eyes. "...You don't _love _me anymore, do you?"

Kasha felt _so _trapped. She didn't want to... _bear his children_, but she also didn't want to piss him off. And, unfortunately, it was _very _easy to piss him off. If she wanted to survive, if she wanted to see her sisters again... She would need to go through with this. She would need to give herself to him. Everything in her went rigid. _She didn't want this. _But she knew that she _needed _to do it. She swallowed hard, and feigned a nervous smile. "N-No, Eddie. That's not true at all. You know that I love you. I'm just... I'm _nervous._" At least she wasn't lying about _that _part.

Eddie's upset and insulted frown slowly lifted back up into a small smile. He placed a hand on Kasha's shoulder reassuringly, his hand sliding down her bicep, then all the way down to her hand. He held her hand in his own much larger hand, "Oh, darling. Don't be. Just... Lay down, close your eyes, and think of our children. I promise, it will _all _be worth it in the end."

Kasha shivered. God... _This man. _Instead of doing what any _normal _man would do, which would have been to hold off on the intimacy all together until the other person was "ready," he instead only thought about himself and _their _children. It was then made clear to Kasha that Eddie truly didn't care about her. To Eddie, Kasha was merely a key piece... _A toy _in his deranged fantasies. Nothing more. Kasha wasn't a _person _to him. _She was a means to an end._

And the most horrible thing about this situation? If Kasha said "no," or asked if the two of them could wait until _she _was ready, Eddie would take that as an insult. He would completely lose his shit, and accuse Kasha of not loving him anymore.

_This behavior was incredibly abusive and manipulative. _

Kasha couldn't help but wonder if, maybe... This was how Eddie's uncle and father had treated him? As a psychologist, Kasha knew fully well that victims of abuse were often imprinted with their abuser's words and actions. More often than not, depending on the level of trauma, a victim of abuse could even literally _become _their abuser without even realizing it.

Kasha was beginning to suspect that this was precisely the case with Eddie's psychosis. All of the things that she had heard him shouting at his victims... His "_wives"_... It very well could have been exactly what his father and uncle had said to him.

"_Just lay down and close your eyes..."_

"_It will all be worth it in the end..." _

Those two things that Eddie had _just_ previously said to her both sounded like something a sexual abuser would say. Was he... Did he _just _repeat the words of his father and uncle to her? He very well could have.

Judging from his patient file, all Eddie Gluskin has ever known was _abuse. _And, because of that, that's the only way that he knows how to _behave._

Kasha was starting to put the pieces of his psych together. God, being a psychologist certainly had it's benefits right now.

Finally, she responded to him. Only a few seconds had gone by in reality. "Y-Yeah. Okay. Our children. Right." She stuttered, slowly creeping on to the bed. She looked like she'd been moving in slow motion. Everything about this was _so awkward. _

Although, another thought struck Kasha as she laid herself down flat on her back on the dirty mattress, staring up at the ceiling. _Would Eddie even be able to engage in intimacy? _Victims of sexual abuse usually responded to intimacy in one of two ways: With _aggressive _intimacy, as a way of inadvertently exacting revenge on their past abusers, or with _asexuality. _With the second option, they would simply hit a brick wall upon even _trying _to be intimate, and start experiencing flashbacks.

Kasha sincerely hoped that Eddie was in that second option.

Eddie knelt down in front of her, looking down at her affectionately. But all it did was creep Kasha out. That wasn't _affection..._ It was _delusion. _

Eddie, internally, wasn't exactly sure on how he should proceed. He felt like a fish out of water. He'd never gotten to this point with any of his beloved wives before. Ever. He never imagined that he ever would, considering that they all turned out to be _whores _in the end... And, additionally, there was always that silly little urge to kill them simply for the sake of killing them to factor in. He looked Kasha's still clothed form over, admiring the simple wedding dress that he'd made, but also admiring how beautiful her obsidian colored hair looked as it tumbled in a fray against the mattress around her pale face.

Eddie then bent down, supporting himself with his left arm, hovering over her. His right hand went to delicately stroke her cheek as he brought his face close to hers, "You're my _prize_, darling..." He muttered. "Our children are going to be _so _beautiful."

Kasha's eyes fearlessly locked with his as he stroked her cheek. Little did Eddie know, however, that Kasha was likely infertile. _She _didn't even know that for sure, seeing as the experiments that Murkoff had done on her were never thoroughly completed with definitive results, but... Kasha had a feeling. I mean, shit, even if she wasn't previously infertile, that fucking shock therapy probably _made _her infertile!

"... Close your eyes, darling."

Kasha complied, her lids shutting over her brown eyes. Her heart pounded in her chest. Everything about this felt _wrong._ Honestly, it took everything in her power to _not _kick the shit out of him and scream.

She then felt his lips meet hers again, but his kiss was _different _this time. It wasn't as confident. He felt like he was hesitating – Like he was _nervous._ Kasha, internally, felt completely fucking overjoyed. She could already predict how this was going to go.

But one thing was for sure: _She needed to let him have **all **of the control. _

If she made _any _kind of gesture of dominance, it would psychologically trigger him. If she even so much as _grabbed him by his shoulders_, that would be enough to trigger him. That much, she could predict confidently. She knew how victims of sexual abuse usually worked.

Eddie then proceeded with what he'd done with her before. Kasha could literally _feel _Eddie beginning to shake with each new gesture of intimacy. But... He had no problem with it before, why was he having a problem with it now? Regardless, Kasha kept her mouth shut and her eyes closed. That's all she could do.

Eddie's kissed her until he decided to begin kissing at her neck again, which unfortunately, was _always _going to be Kasha's weakness. She shivered, goosebumps rising on her skin. "Sit up, darling. I need to take your dress off." He whispered, his voice slightly shaking. Even through his slight lisp, caused by his facial deformities.

Kasha complied like an obedient dog. She sat straight up, letting Eddie have control of _everything _like she'd planned.He unzipped her filthy white gown from the back. "Sit on your knees. I need to pull it off."

She, once again, complied. Kasha lifted her arms up and let Eddie pull her dress off, revealing her mostly naked body with the exception of her bra and underwear. Kasha's pale body had been bruised and battered from her adventures around Mount Massive. Particularly around her mid-torso, where that one asshole had decided to kick her in the ribs repeatedly. There were also now scabbed up slashes on both of her biceps from when both of The Twins had managed to nick her. And, of course, the freshest bruise on her body was the one around her throat. From when Eddie had attempted to kill her, and very nearly succeeded, by hanging her from the rafters. Her body looked like it had been through hell. And, well, _it had. _

Eddie looked her body over with a frown, observing the multitude of purple bruises polluting her beautiful skin. He placed his hands on her shoulders from behind her, his hands sliding down her arms slowly, then resting at her bare waist. "All of these _unsightly bruises_, darling... They're very unbecoming of you." He commented, his hands now venturing to her abdomen. His hands stopped there, caressing the spot. "But once we grow our family... Once you're _plump with my seed_, I'll protect you. _This..._" He almost spat, referring to the slashes and bruises. "... Will _never _happen to you again. _Nothing _will ever happen to you, or our babies. You understand that, don't you darling?"

Kasha turned her head to the side, then brought her hand up to caress his cheek. "I believe you, dear. Our family is going to be _beautiful._" She decided to feed his delusions for now. Internally, however, Kasha was completely beyond herself.

Eddie hugged himself against her, continuing to work on her neck with his lips from behind, his hands now firmly and possessively wrapped around her waist. She retracted for a moment to remove his fingerless gloves, wanting to feel her bare skin without the intrusion of fabric.

Kasha dipped her head back against his shoulder, shamelessly enjoying the sensation despite her qualms against the intimacy. She couldn't help it. She hated admitting it, but part of her was starting to _like _it. It was just like how it was before, on the table. She didn't want Eddie, she didn't want his intimacy. But at the same time, something in her _did. _For now, Kasha was going to blame it on basic primal bullshit.

Eddie's confidence grew as Kasha warranted a reaction to his touch. He felt compelled to take it a step further at this point... Watching Kasha give herself to him _drove _something in him.

"You like this, don't you darling?" He muttered, licking at her ear. Kasha felt a hot flash pulse through her. She only half lied with her response. "Yes, dear, of course."

Eddie then grabbed her and, to Kasha's surprise, violently yanked her around and slammed her back down against the mattress, flat on her back. Kasha's eyes widened, and fear began to boil up in her. _He seemed angry. _Did she not sound sure enough?

Eddie loomed over her, standing at the end of the mattress, his hands fidgeting with the buttons of his dark blue vest. _This _was it. This was the moment in which Kasha would be able to judge how the rest of this encounter would go. If he took his clothes off, and did it successfully, Kasha knew that he would be able to be intimate without hitting a brick wall.

Someone taking their clothing off embodied vulnerability and trust. Two things that Eddie would never experience. Or rather, two things that he didn't _want _to experience. If Eddie could do _that_, then... Kasha was in trouble. She watched as Eddie hesitantly flicked at the buttons of his vest, not even _trying _to unbutton them. He was just... _Fidgeting._

Was this the brick wall?

Kasha sat up, then, but Eddie seemed to back away almost instantaneously with a sudden flinch. Oh, boy. _This was it. _

"Dear, is something wrong?" Kasha asked, looking him up and down. "Would you like me to help you?" She would never get used to this. She could probably win an Oscar for her acting performance here with Eddie.

Eddie didn't respond. At least, not for a while. He merely stared down at the buttons as his fingers repeatedly flicked them. His eyes looked quite hollow.

Kasha knew exactly what was going on, and she knew what to do. Eddie was shutting down. Completely. She'd never seen him act this way. Usually, he would respond with _aggression. _Not like... This. This was a new pattern.

Eddie was beginning to have flashbacks. As he stared at the buttons, vivid memories of his father unbuttoning the front buttons of his pajamas came thrashing into his mind like a relentless barbarian. He couldn't escape them. The _buttons_... Eddie recalled his father and uncle working together, then. They stripped Eddie of his clothing, leaving him vulnerable and helpless against their malicious touch. Eddie remembered how much he thrashed, how much he screamed and cried, but... That never did anything. It only made it worse. They would beat the hell out of him until he couldn't scream anymore. And then...

"_I need you to try to __**bleed less**__, Edward..."_

"_I've always wanted a daughter. You... You're just a disappointment. Maybe I could __**make **__a daughter out of you..."_

"_Don't you __**dare **__scream at me, you little whore! You take what your father gives to you with GRATITUDE, you ungrateful little __**slut**__!" _

"_Let me __**fill you up**__, son..." _

His father's voice boomed through his mind with vivid clarity.

Eddie went rigid.

This was the part that he'd selectively decided to repress.

Eddie's hands then dropped to his sides, completely giving up with the buttons. Kasha stood up, then, cautiously approaching him. All she needed to do was _snap him out of it._ To _show _him that he was okay. "Honey, you're okay. You're _not there anymore._" She said, trying to be reassuring.

In order for her to survive, she needed him to be _calm._ She knew that he fully intended on killing her regardless of what she did or said, but... Still, Kasha had some hope that she'd be able to crack through his psychosis _enough_ to allow her to escape this place. _She needed his trust. _

Eddie still didn't respond, and it greatly concerned Kasha. She was waiting for him to suddenly jump out and attack her, to choke her, _anything_. As she got closer and closer to him, however, he didn't budge. He simply looked at the floor. Speechless.

She was afraid to touch him. Whatever was going through his head right now, _it wasn't good. _And touching him could set off some kind of reaction – Some kind of _defense. _Kasha gently placed her hand in Eddie's, looking up at him. He'd been quite a bit taller than her, despite her naturally standing at five foot eight. "Eddie, look at me. You need to believe me when I tell you that you're _**not **_there anymore. You're here. With _me._ You're _safe." _For once, she actually meant what she said to him. She _wanted _him to believe that, genuinely.

Finally, Kasha got a response. "Those filthy _fucking _pigs..." He snarled, his hand suddenly clasping around Kasha's in an iron grip. It hurt tremendously, but Kasha did her best not to flinch in pain. "Yeah, and guess what? Do you remember our plan? Do you remember what we decided in the gymnasium? We're going to get out of this place, _together_, and we're going to rid the world of their evil." Kasha needed to manipulate him with lies to get through to him. There was no other way. She continued, "And that way, they'll _never _be able to hurt our children."

That last part in particular was what stood out to Eddie. He finally looked back up to meet her gaze, frowning. "I'm so sorry, darling. I'm sure this must be as disappointing for you as it is for me." He was still gripping Kasha's hand with an uncomfortable firmness. "I _promised _you that I would be a different man after the ceremony. And what am I now?" He growled, anger boiling up within him, his temper beginning to flare up.

Well, it was time to pacify him. Again. "... You're a _different man._ That's what you are. Do you realize that you've been far more open and nurturing with me since the whole gymnasium conversation? You _are _a different man, Eddie. Don't be so hard on yourself."

God, she was really sounding like a therapist right now. She nearly gagged on her own words. She sounded incredibly genuine, but in truth, she was only partially genuine. She needed to say _whatever it took _to get him to a somewhat neutral state of mind... If he even _had _one.

Just then, Eddie's hand released it's deathly strong embrace on hers. Both of his hands moved back to the buttons on his vest, and he began undoing them one by one. This time, with no hesitation. Kasha was completely surprised.

_Thank god for her psychology license. _

Eddie removed his vest and tossed it aside, leaving only his heavily stained, white button-up shirt remaining for upper clothing. Kasha wouldn't remove his clothing for him. That was _his _job. _He _needed to take that step. Kasha tampering with his clothing would only serve to trigger him once again.

So, Kasha simply stood in front of him. Waiting. Watching him as he proceeded to unbutton his white shirt. He did it slowly and hesitantly, but he was making some serious psychological process by even doing it in the first place.

Kasha felt like she was _finally _giving the therapy that Eddie had needed all along. Of course, there was certainly no way to completely "fix" him now. It was too late for him. He was too far gone. But Kasha, in a strange way, felt _good_ about this. She felt like she was still helping him and giving him some kind of therapy.

Once Eddie finally removed his white undershirt, Kasha couldn't help but warrant some kind of internal reaction about how _built _he was. Jesus Christ. She wasn't expecting that. His body was muscular and defined, and the scars of Murkoff's experiments could clearly be seen dotted all over his bare chest. Holes from where the tubing had gone into, when he'd been connected to the Morphogenic Engine... She saw a couple of incision scars, too.

This poor bastard.

Eddie's hands went to her waist and pulled her against him once again. "Shall we start over, then?" He asked, smirking.

All Kasha had to do was nod, and the rest was history. Kasha would need to play her part to a T. Eddie then grabbed Kasha and scooped her up in his arms bridal style, bringing her back over to the mattress and laying her down.

Eddie's movements had suddenly become far more powerful and aggressive. He looped his arm around Kasha, his hand finding the clasp of her bra and unhooking it. He practically _tore _her bra off, tossing it aside carelessly. His hands dominated her soft breasts, taking one in each of his hands as he began caressing them while simultaneously enveloping Kasha in a kiss.

Kasha was _completely _taken off guard by this. Eddie's attitude and behavior had _drastically _changed, and it was really difficult for Kasha to handle. She could already feel herself beginning to slip away into his touch.

And, honestly, that was the _last _thing that she wanted to happen. Survival required a _clear mind. _Not one shrouded with irrational lust.

But Eddie was making it incredibly difficult for her to keep a clear mind. Kasha's hands instinctively looped around his broad frame, gripping at his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin as he began slowly grinding against her through his pants. His pants were the last article of clothing that needed to come off of him. Kasha's breathing audibly hitched as he began grinding against her, her head dipping back as she slowly began to succumb to lust.

Once she dipped her head back, revealing her neck and simultaneously giving Eddie more of a playground to work with, he began attacking the surface of her neck with peppered kisses, and the occasional bite. Kasha gripped his shoulders tighter, nearly drawing blood at this point.

_How was she going to get out of this? _

She could barely think straight anymore. Kasha felt an overwhelming surge of anxiety pulse through her as she then realized how much raw danger she was currently in. Her guard was down. _Eddie was going to kill her. _She needed to get out of this. Somehow.

However, Eddie persisted, and his current aggressive sexual persistence was barely leaving Kasha with any breathing room. She couldn't even _speak_, because half of the time, her mouth was occupied with _his _sloppy mouth. She couldn't catch a break, and he was probably intentionally making it that way for her.

Kasha squirmed underneath Eddie's much larger body, whimpering as she tried to regain control of the situation. She was trying to get her _common sense _back. Eddie noticed this, and it only seemed to fuel the fire. He was _getting off _on her squirming. "Mmm, now now, darling... There's no need to _squirm._ Be still. Let me _love _you, darling..." He almost purred, his voice a low groan as he began to feel his pants tighten around his groin.

Kasha felt his... Erm, _tightness _as well, and it wasn't helping her case. In fact, it was driving her further down the path of losing herself as he continued to grind against her. She'd now been starting to break a sweat through her damnable, unwelcome arousal.

"_All I want is a crazy fucking variant to burst through this door right now and distract him... That's all I want. Please._" Kasha internally pleaded, then gasped and arched her back as she felt the ball of Eddie's thumb accidentally pinch her right nipple. Eddie noticed the reaction, confused at first, then realized what had caused it with a mischievous grin. Eddie then went to repeat the process on the both of them simultaneously, and it warranted a small, barely audible groan to involuntarily escape Kasha's lips.

_He had **all **of the control. And she didn't like it. _

Why did she even let him have control in the first place? Oh yeah, that's right, because _he would have killed her otherwise. _

It was then that an abrupt series of loud bangs sounded from the hallway outside of the room, and it caught both Eddie and Kasha's attention instantly. For Eddie, it was more of a _territorial _attention. For Kasha, it was _hope. _Hope that this would be her break out of this situation, regardless of _how _much she'd been shamelessly enjoying it.

After the series of bangs persisted without cease, Eddie finally rose to his feet and began redressing himself. "Stay here, darling. I'll be back. I need to... Ensure that whatever _that _is isn't going to harm you." After he'd re-buttoned his shirt and vest, he ventured out into the dark depths of the hallway to investigate the noise. His posture was tense and angry, and he was likely overwhelmingly frustrated that he'd been... _Interrupted. _

Eddie didn't care about Kasha as an individual. He never had. He either saw Kasha as a _vessel _to harbor his child, or a pawn in his fantasies. Nothing more. Kasha could never allow herself to forget that. Because in her deliriously starved state, she was highly likely to _believe _his charms.

The minute Eddie shut the door, however, Kasha knew that she needed to act fast. She noticed a window on the far side of the room, and it _obviously _led outside. The sun was just beginning to rise up. Kasha stood up from the mattress and ventured over to the window, looking out into the dull field of Mount Massive. Judging from the height of the sun, Kasha could assume that it was maybe... Four or five in the morning?

The peaceful serenity of gazing out at the sunrise had been quickly shattered by what sounded like... _Gunshots_? Kasha's heart sank. **Gunshots**. Nothing good could have been coming from that. She heard a multitude of men's voices heavily muffled through the walls, and harsh stomping pounding through the nearest halls. _What was this? What was going on? _

For a moment, she was even concerned about Eddie. The gunshots didn't sound like they were coming from a mere pistol, either. They were coming from a rapid fire gun. A machine gun, maybe. Was the _military _here? Maybe the cops? That was the only conclusion that Kasha could think of.

Regardless, Kasha needed to get out of here. Quickly. Before leaving, she grabbed her bra and clipped it back on around her breasts, then pulled the filthy "wedding" dress over herself. It was all she had for now. She then grabbed the window with both hands and yanked it upwards to open it, crawling out, being mindful of her balance. The window was low to the ground outside, luckily, so it wasn't going to be a problem getting out. Kasha's bare feet landed on the soft grass, and she found herself exhaling a massive sigh of relief.

But part of her... Almost felt _guilty_ for running away. Oh, god. No.

Now she knew that she _really _needed to get away. She was losing her fucking mind.

She pushed herself forwards frantically, her body barely being able to run on no food or sleep within the last thirty hours. She was already heaving, and she could feel her weak legs giving out. At least she wasn't running through a foggy, nightmare-ish field this time with a pair of psychotic twins chasing after her.

She could _still _hear the gunshots and the screaming.

Kasha ran until, finally, she could see that stupid fucking tower that she'd started in. She glared at it and shook her head, wondering what she'd be like now if she'd stayed in there this entire time. But as she looked ahead of the tower, relief washed over her as she recognized the area as the very front of Mount Massive.

_She was almost out. Almost. _

_Her sisters were waiting for her. California was waiting for her. Home._

She smiled weakly, feeling a ball in her throat as the urge to cry overwhelmed her. She was _almost there. _As she neared the front of the asylum, she could make out a multitude of what looked like armored vehicles with the Murkoff logo stamped on to their sides. _Murkoff Armed Forces. _Murkoff must have ordered this place to be purged after the Walrider broke out.

The men with guns in there... They were intending to kill _everything _in site, then. More than likely. It was a good thing that she'd never run into them then. Kasha began shuffling towards the front gates, thinking about nothing else but _home_, and the faces of her sisters. She noticed that... Much to her surprise, the front gates had already been _smashed _out, off of their hinges. And, there appeared to be tire marks, likely from the culprit of the broken gates, leading out into the open road.

"Someone must have already escaped." She muttered to herself, walking forwards to her freedom.

"D-DARLING! _DARLING!_"

Eddie called out to her desperately, coming from the fields. It looked like he'd followed her. She turned around to look at him, and she felt a pang of guilt. He'd been peppered with a couple of bullet wounds scattered around his torso, and he'd been bleeding out.

Kasha froze. No. _No. She was almost free. _


	9. Chapter 9

Kasha backed up, her body rigid with anxiety as she stared Eddie down. Eddie limped towards her. "Why would you... Why would you _leave _me? I didn't think that you-" He coughed, blood expelling from his lungs. "- that you would _be _like the others! The other _whores. _The _sluts. _N-No. I _know _you're not like them. Please, darling, come back to me! We can... We can talk things out!"

Kasha noticed that one of Eddie's hands was behind his back. She narrowed her eyes. "What's behind your back, hm? Is it your _knife? _Because if it is, there's no fucking hope for you. _None. _Part of me..." She scowled, looking away, but continued to back away from him towards the crashed open front gates of Mount Massive. "... Part of me thought that, maybe, I could get through your delusions. Break them. God, Eddie, if you had gotten the therapy that you _needed_..." She felt a great amount of guilt. She felt personally responsible.

She'd had him as a patient _once _before the breakout. And even then, in just _one _session, she'd made a breakthrough with him just before he left her office.

_If they had continued with her therapy sessions... What would Eddie be now? _

Predictably, Eddie seemed to all but ignore Kasha's words. He stubbornly stuck to his fantasy. "_We could have been beautiful, darling!" _He almost yelled, anger boiling up in his voice. But more than anything, it was _frustration. _He truly believed that Kasha was going to be different. _He trusted her. "_One after another... I try, and I try, and they _all _betray me. I do nothing but _care _for them, I do nothing but _make them beautiful_... And what do they do, to repay my acts of kindness? _This._" He spat the word out, looking Kasha up and down with hateful eyes.

"Well _gee_ Eddie, I don't know, maybe it's because you're a complete and utter fucking _psychopath _that chops people's dicks off for a fucking living! To make them "beautiful?" It that what you _really _think that you're doing? No, Eddie. WAKE UP. You're not making those men into women to love them, _you're making them into women so that you can __**kill **__them. _Because you _enjoy _killing women. Snap the fuck out of it, you delusional fucking _sociopath!"_ The words tumbled out of Kasha's mouth in a fit of rage, and she could hardly control herself. She'd held that in this _entire time_, and she couldn't repress it any longer. The flood gates had been opened.

Kasha needed to just run. She already knew what Eddie's response to that was going to be. Everything in her willed her to just turn around and book it, to just _run _the fuck out of those opened gates behind her to freedom. _To her sisters. To California. _There was nothing she could do about Eddie now. He wasn't going to back off. This time, Kasha wasn't going to be able to pacify him. She now fully realized that. Especially not after what she'd just said to him.

This, right here, was a stand off. It was either him, or her.

There _was _no pacifying this time.

Kasha watched as blood trickled out of Eddie's mouth, along with the various bullet holes dotted around his torso. _She had the advantage. _She was more physically capable of defending herself than he was. She took note of that.

Everything came down to this. Her mask shattered into a million pieces. She continued, watching as Eddie's eyes burned through her with seething hatred. "For _fuck's sake_, Eddie, get the hell out of that shitty little fantasy world that you live in and _look at this place!_" She yelled, pointing at the asylum behind Eddie. "Do you _want _to live in complete and utter _insanity? _Do you? Or do you want to get the fuck out of this terrible place, _with me_, and at least _attempt _to live a normal life?" She figured that she would throw that whole "escape with me" plan out there as a last ditch effort to manipulate him.

It didn't work. Eddie then took his hand out from behind his back, revealing his knife clutched desperately in his large hand. He was _shaking _with rage. But the more he walked, the weaker his posture became as he bled out. "_You..._" He growled, "... Are going to be my _prized _possession, darling. I'll bring you back _home. _Where you _belong. _And we'll-" He coughed again, this time cupping his hand to his mouth. "- We'll have such _beautiful _children." He said his usual lines, but this time, he spoke with far more rage in his voice than Kasha had ever seen or heard before. His voice shook, and it was in a perpetual _growl. _Part of him must have known that Kasha's words held truth, but his psychosis prevented him from consciously _realizing _it. The potential internal conflict within him must have been royally fucking with his head.

"How... How _dare _you talk to me like that..." He then choked out, glaring at Kasha. "After _everything _that I've done for you. After _everything _that I did to protect you. You _dare _talk to _me _that way? You ungrateful fucking _shit..._ SLUT!" He spat, watching as Kasha continued to back away from him. Eddie could feel his legs screaming at him to stop walking. He could feel his body giving out. But after all of this, _he still wanted this woman. _

Now, however, he wanted to display her like the grandest of trophies in his museum of _whores. _

Kasha then made the decision that she should have made a long, long time ago. _Especially _when she'd begun working here. She turned around on her bare heel and, with all of her strength, stormed out through the broken front gates. Her legs pushed her faster than she'd ever felt herself go, the adrenaline pumping through her with one goal: Survival. Fuck this.

Running through those gates had been one of the most... _Liberating _and euphoric sensations that Kasha had ever felt in her entire life. She would never forget it. She would tell her sisters back in California all about this. She couldn't wait to crack a joke to them about Eddie after she'd gotten over the ordeal, she... She couldn't wait to see their faces again.

This was it.

_This was really happening. She was **really **going to see them again. _

She was going to _live. _

She smiled as she ran for her life, her breaths coming out in exhausted huffs as she powered down the long concrete road that winded down through the Colorado mountains. She'd forgotten how secluded this facility was. Getting back to civilization would be... God, a journey of it's own.

But she didn't care. _She was going to survive. _That's all she cared about.

Kasha's heart sank into her stomach when she felt an abrasive body lunge itself at her from behind, hitting her with an incredible impact that sent the both of them falling forwards, hitting the hard road with a devastating thud that sent the two of them rolling.

_**NO.**_

Eddie slammed his fists into Kasha's face repeatedly. "NO! You're not _leaving! _You're not leaving _**me! **_I can't be alone! You're coming back home, with _me, _and we're going to raise a _beautiful _family! _Do you understand me, darling?!" _He nearly shrieked, punching her continuously the entire time.

Kasha desperately clawed at Eddie's arms, kicking him with all of her strength. She then took two fingers and jabbed them into one of Eddie's bullet hole wounds, moving her fingers around inside of the wound, pushing the lodged bullet deeper inside of him. Eddie screamed out in pain, and Kasha took the opportunity to grab his lower half with her knees and yank him to the right with all of the strength that she could muster. Eddie fell to his side next to her, and Kasha took the chance to climb on top of him to gain the upper hand.

"_No one _is stopping me from seeing my sisters again. _**No one.**_" She growled, her voice now slightly distorted through the swelling of her battered face. She then clasped her hands around Eddie's throat and pressed down with all of her weight, praying to whatever god there may or may not be that she could kill him. Right here, right now.

But the cards weren't in Kasha's favor.

Eddie gagged against Kasha's vice grip, but he quickly regained control. He kneed Kasha in the gut and pried her fingers off of his throat manually. Kasha's eyes widened with horror. He then grabbed Kasha by her throat, lifted her up, and dropped her back down on to the concrete road. Kasha landed with a thud, crawling away from him in a last ditch attempt to save her life. Eddie advanced towards her with the brutality of a fucking tank, armed with his knife once again.

"_How the fuck is he suddenly so strong? How?! Shouldn't he be __**dying **__by now and bleeding out?" _Kasha frantically thought to herself, watching as Eddie quickly sat on top of her to properly restrain her. He lifted his arm up, his knife threateningly pointing down on her.

"I did warn you, darling. I _told _you to behave." He began, his chest rising and falling rapidly with his shortened breaths. Blood continued to trickle down his chin, trailing from his mouth. "... You _will _behave now. Whether you want to or not." He then plunged his knife down into Kasha's gut, twisting the blade as it impaled her.

Kasha cried out and grasped at the impact wound, now pooling over with blood. "So... This is it, then? _This _is your life, Eddie? You fucking _piece of shit. You psychotic piece of sh-" _He plunged the blade down into her again, once again in her gut.

It was just like that time back at the gymnasium. When she had _almost _died. She was so close to death in that stupid fucking gymnasium. And now, she was reliving the experience. Memories began playing through her mind like a home movie as Eddie continued to relentlessly plunge his knife into Kasha's body. Kasha couldn't even feel his blade anymore. Her consciousness drifted and focused on the happy memories playing through her mind.

Particularly, of her and her sisters playing in a kiddie pool on a warm summer day. They'd all been very, very small. Maybe around the age of six. It was then that Kasha recalled that she'd never once told her sisters that she'd loved them. Kasha had always been the least emotional out of the four of them, and she'd never... _Expressed _herself in that way to them.

She would die without her telling them that she loved them. Currently, that was Kasha's biggest regret. Tears began to pour from her brown eyes as the realization came to her.

"I... I _love _you guys." She choked out, barely lucid. She felt like she'd been speaking directly to them, and it gave her a peace of mind. The last thing Kasha saw play through her mind was her sisters smiling back at her, and in reality, Kasha physically smiled softly in response to the memory.

Then, Eddie's knife delivered the fatal and final blow to Kasha's chest. The blade pierced her lung through her rib cage, and she violently choked and gasped against her now collapsed lung. It didn't take long for Kasha to stop moving after the final blow.

Eddie looked down at her lifeless corpse with eyes glazed over in apathy, wheezing. His body trembled, threatening to give out on him at any moment. He'd pushed his horribly wounded body to it's limits. He grabbed Kasha's still bleeding body by both of her ankles, and began dragging her back up the concrete road.

~/~

"Hold still now, darling... All of this _unsightly _filth. We're going to need to get all of this off. That beautiful skin can't be dirtied." Eddie's voice echoed through the tiled walls of the washroom, dirty water pouring through the bathtub's faucet.

Kasha's now naked corpse laid in the bathtub as the brown tinted water washed over her. Eddie's hand held some bundled up fabric as he gently washed her corpse, smearing the fabric against her now even paler flesh. "I can't have my beautiful wife looking so... _Filthy. _Once you're cleaned up, we'll say hello to the children."

He spent what seemed like hours washing her body before he deemed it "clean" enough for his standards. He drained the tub's water and scooped Kasha's body up in his arms. "Come now, darling. There's much work to be done."

A day had passed since the incident. Eddie now had the asylum mostly to himself, seeing as Murkoff security had successfully obliterated most of the common variants that once roamed the halls. The first thing Eddie did when he returned to the asylum was spend _hours _in front of one of the only remaining mirrors left intact on the facility, picking the bullets out of his body. He wasn't quite sure how his body was going to heal internally, or if it even _would, _but that wasn't his main concern right now.

He had his palace _all _to himself now, and he had his queen by his side. It was all that he could ever want, and all that he ever _had _wanted.

Eddie brought Kasha into the gymnasium. He'd already set up a mannequin stand for his trophy to be displayed on, which was centered at the back wall of the gymnasium with an array of candles almost religiously lit around the mannequin stand, with an addition of two wooden planks being extended at the arms to almost resemble a crucifix. All he needed to do was... _Polish _his trophy.

Using hooks that he'd strategically left exposed on the mannequin stand, he gently hoisted Kasha's body against the stand, lowering her body on to the hooks. The hooks impaled her delicate, lifeless flesh, and successfully held her body against the stand. Eddie took Kasha's arms and positioned them to sit against the extended wooden planks. He grabbed some rope and twisted it around her wrists, merely to keep her arms from dropping.

Eddie then worked with Kasha's legs. He started with the right leg, wrapping the same rope around her ankle, pulling her leg away from the other, tying a knot around an already placed heavy piece of exercise equipment. Eddie repeated the process on Kasha's left leg, spreading her legs far apart as the ending result.

He then took his knife and carved a vertical line beginning at her breast bone, then down to her groin. He opened the incision and allowed her intestines to pour out of her as a result, letting them carelessly drop down to the floor in front of her with a disgusting slosh. He then went to gather a couple of decapitated heads that had already been littering the floor of the gymnasium. He brought three back, placing two of them directly underneath Kasha's spread legs. He stuffed the remaining head into Kasha's carved out torso. He then took out his needle and thread, pulling and stretching the skin of her belly over the inserted head. He sewed the skin back together, giving Kasha's belly the bloated appearance of a pregnant woman.

Eddie paid attention to detail, positioning her fallen intestines in such a way that it looked like they'd been splashing outwards from her groin on the floor. The scene obviously simulated a messy, twisted birth.

Eddie stepped back and admired his work for a moment, smiling to himself. There was only one thing left to do. He left for a moment and returned with a small bucket, which had been filled with Kasha's excess blood that he'd harvested earlier just for _this_ final step. He walked to the wall behind Kasha's positioned corpse, dipping his fingers in the bucket, and began writing on the wall.

"_QUEEN OF THE PALACE" _The writing read, bowed over her positioned corpse. Eddie also painted a multitude of messy hearts all over the surrounding area of the wall.

He stepped back and, with the rest of the blood in the bucket, splashed and splattered it all over Kasha's corpse. He poured the last remaining bits of it down onto the floor, around the decapitated heads. Or rather, the "children."

Eddie then stepped back once more, his heart filling with warmth and satisfaction like he'd never felt before. He could die happy now, if these internal injuries ended up killing him.

"You're just as you're meant to be now, darling... _Immortalized. _Immortalized in my love's arbor." He said with a long, drawn out sigh.

He then turned his back and walked out of the gymnasium, whistling the tune of "I Want A Girl" by The American Quartet to himself as he left.

Kasha would forever remain as a beacon of Eddie's insanity, symbolizing all of his delusions.

She truly was immortalized.

And Eddie would never, ever forget her.

~/~

**Author's Note: **Aaand that's a wrap! Thank you guys _so _much for reading and giving me feedback! This story has by far become my most popular story, and it was really fucking fun to write. I've never written a story that's inspired people to go so far as to write their _own _stories, and even draw _fan art _for the story! (Without me even asking for it! Lol.)

Anyway, thanks so much for reading, and I'll see you guys in the very near future with some alternative endings. Yes, I _do _plan on doing that. ;)


	10. Alternate Ending

Kasha backed away from Eddie, her back facing the crashed open front gates of Mount Massive. Eddie slowly approached her, his posture slumped as blood trickled from his mouth. His body was threatening to give out on him. Kasha observed his injuries, taking note of the fact that _he _was for more physically injured than she was. _She had the advantage. _

However, Kasha _also _noticed that Eddie had his hand suspiciously behind his back as he slowly shuffled towards her.

"Eddie, please-"

"Why would you _run _from me, darling? _Why? _After everything that I've done for you, after everything that you _promised _me... You turned out to be just like _all _of the others." He huffed, coughing, expelling blood from his lungs. "You're just another _whore _after all." He spat the word out with such _hatred_, such _malice. _Kasha had certainly heard him angry before, but this time was different. He sounded far more angry than he'd ever been before.

"And to think – I wanted you to _have my children!" _He spat, scowling.

Kasha made eye contact with him, continuing to back up towards the front gates. She thought about trying to reason with him. Trying to _pacify _him again. But when Eddie brought his hand out from behind his back, she knew that there would be no pacifying him this time. Eddie revealed his long knife, desperately clutching the blade in his right hand.

"I only ran out here to, uh-" She had to think about her wording _very _carefully. Her life hung on the next couple of sentences. "- to _meet _you. Remember the plan? I still intend on seeing it through. I _still _intend on leaving this place with you, and hunting down those _filthy human beings _with you." Of course, she was referring to his father and uncle. She tried to keep her voice as calm as possible. This was her _final _and last ditch attempt to manipulate him.

Eddie's left arm went to clutch at his side as he winced in pain. The bullet holes decorating his torso were bleeding out, and staining his self-sewn vest with crimson. "Don't _lie _to me, you little _**whore**_!" He roared, his breath hissing through his teeth. His voice sounded far more vicious than Kasha had ever heard it before.

Fuck. Her manipulation wasn't going to work anymore. He'd fallen off the deep end, and there was no coming back for him. Kasha had lost control of his psychosis.

This wasn't good.

"I'm sick of hearing your _**filthy **_lies, you ungrateful little _slut! _All I ever did was _love you!_" He continued, his voice echoing throughout the yard.

The more Kasha stood there listening to him scream at her, the more she felt her boiling point coming to it's climax. Her skin itched, and _all _she wanted to do was scream in his face. But, he only seemed to be getting progressively more and more angry. Nothing Kasha said would be able to change his mind, or calm him. Speaking was a complete waste of time. She needed to just _run. _Her freedom was waiting for her right behind her. _Her sisters, her life. _EVERYTHING waited for her behind her, through those front gates. Standing here talking to this fucking psychopath was just a waste of time. Kasha felt her masterfully crafted mask shatter, and her mouth opened to spew out a tornado of long since repressed words.

"You know what? _Fuck you_, you deranged fucking _psychopath! _For one god damned minute, how about you try actually _looking at reality_, rather than perpetually living in your fucked up little _fantasy _world! _News flash, Eddie: _People run away from you because _you're a fucking serial murderer that makes a hobby out of mutilating people's bodies!" _She roared, her hands clenching into fists as her words poured from her mouth.

"How _dare _you talk to me like that, you filthy fucking _**whore**_-"

"NO! Shut the _fuck _up, and _don't call me that!_ _**I'm **_not done talking, you egotistical little prick! You _really _think that you're in love, don't you? In your fucked up little _Leave It To Beaver _world, you must _truly _believe that you love all of the people that you mutilate, don't you? No. You're not making those men into women to _love _them, _you're making them into women to __**kill them.**_" Kasha was getting absolutely fucking hysterical over this, and she had _zero _tolerance for anything that Eddie had to say right now. She saw him open his mouth, so she quickly spoke again.

"You're like a broken fucking record! It's always the _same shit _with you! What, should I be _grateful _for your deranged perception of _forced _love?" She glared at him, delivering the most hateful glare that she could muster, shaking her head. "You're _pathetic. _Poor little Eddie Gluskin: _Raped _by his daddy and uncle. You let that change you as a person because you're fucking _weak. _You were turned into _this-" _She looked him up and down, spitting the word out in the most condescending way. "- because you're _weak. I hope you fucking rot here, __**scum.**_"

Kasha had never been filled with so much raw rage before. But it felt _so good _to finally be herself again. To _finally _break that mask. She turned her head to quickly look back at the gate. Once she turned her head back to face Eddie, however, her heart sank as she watched Eddie barreling towards her like a fucking _tank. _

_He was fucking **furious. **_And rightfully so.

_It was time to run. _Kasha immediately turned on her bare heel and darted out through the front gates, her bare feet clapping against the asphalt road as she frantically ran for her life.

She just _had _to open her fucking mouth, didn't she? Jesus. This was a mess.

When Kasha ran past the concrete sign that read "_Mount Massive Asylum,"_ she felt a unique and much needed sense of relief and euphoria wash over her. She hadn't seen that sign in _three years. _For such a long time, she'd _longed _to see that sign again as she left this fucking place, after quitting her job there. But she'd never anticipated becoming a _prisoner _here. She'd even dreamed about it, about _quitting _her job. About _leaving _this place. And now, it was a reality. But she couldn't dwell on that thought for too long, considering that she had a rampaging psychopath chasing after her at an alarming velocity.

The long asphalt road winded down into the vast Colorado mountains, and Kasha silently wished that she could enjoy the scenery as her breathing heaved in her chest. She could hear Eddie's thumping, heavy footsteps directly behind her.

_How was he running this fast? His body was injured to shit with bullet wounds!_

Kasha's strained legs began to give out, and as a result, her running slowed just enough for Eddie to get a hold of her. Eddie grabbed Kasha by her hair and stopped running, causing Kasha to yank back violently with a shriek of pain. She grabbed at her head. "Let _go _of me! FUCK YOU!" She roared, kicking behind her in an unsuccessful attempt to kick his knee caps.

Eddie, still holding her by her obsidian hair, violently tugged Kasha to the right with a powerful thrust of his arm while simultaneously tripping her, causing Kasha to collapse on her side against the hard road. She landed with a thud, and immediately tried to scramble back up to her feet. However, Eddie kicked her in the side, and she fell flat on her back against the road. He sat on Kasha's waist, and began mercilessly obliterating her pale face with a chain of punches.

"_This _is why you need to _behave_, darling! THIS is what happens when you talk to me like that!" He boomed, slamming a fourth punch into her cheek bone. Kasha heard something crack in her face. She needed to stop this, _now. _

Kasha flung her arms at Eddie's face and began scratching him, digging her long nails deeply into his already lesioned face. She couldn't do anything with her legs, considering _his _position on her, so she had to rely on her arms. Kasha then reached up and grabbed at his black hair, tugging his head by his hair with violent jerks. Finally, Eddie became distracted, and he brought his hands up to fight with hers. This gave Kasha a solid window to regain control of the situation.

Kasha clasped Eddie's head in her hands and, with a strained groan, forced him to the right with every ounce of strength possible. As a result, Kasha successfully managed to slam Eddie on his side next to her. She a quickly climbed on top of him, her grip still on his hair.

"You filthy fucking _shit-" _Eddie groaned, but Kasha cut his words off by slamming the back of his head, by his hair, into the hard road beneath him. She repeated this motion about three or four times before Eddie had managed to land a punch squarely in her gut, causing the wind to be knocked out of Kasha. Kasha recoiled, which allowed Eddie to grab her throat.

Kasha gagged, clawing at his hand. Eddie then rose to his feet, holding her high, her feet kicking frantically. "Have we learned our lesson now, darling?" He choked out, coughing. Kasha could feel his arm shaking under the strain of her body's weight. His body was being pushed to it's limits, and Kasha needed to take advantage of that. Kasha swung her foot forwards, landing a hard kick squarely in Eddie's groin. Eddie cried out and released his grip on Kasha, causing her to drop to her knees on the road in front of him. Kasha snickered, holding her throat. _Fucking priceless._

"_Go fuck yourself._" Kasha spat, watching as Eddie struggled to stand against the crippling pain of Kasha's kick. To Kasha's left, she noticed a number of large, discarded rocks laying scattered along the side of the road. She reached for one of the rocks, but Eddie's arm shot down and grabbed her forearm. He brought his knife back out again, then, and plunged the blade down into her forearm. Kasha screamed out in pain, "BASTARD! Fucking _bastard!_" She cried out, blood pooling out of the stab wound. He retracted the blade, kicking Kasha in her side again. She fell over on her side, glaring up at Eddie's broad figure looming ominously over her.

He knelt down beside her. "I shouldn't have had to do that, darling. _But you made me do it. _You're _making _me do this to you. I'm going to hang you up as my most _prized _trophy, darling... You're going to be beautiful." He hummed, gliding his hand through her tangled black hair.

Kasha's hand jolted to grab Eddie's forearm as his hand combed through her hair. Her nails dug into his skin, "Don't fucking _touch _me." She hissed, yanking his arm away from her. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her body was completely exhausted. _But not as exhausted as his body was. _She used that to reassure herself, and she quickly forced herself to regain her footing. Blood trickled down her arm from the stab wound, the blood dripping off at her finger tips.

Eddie charged at her again. Fuck, _she needed to act fast. _Her head quickly turned to look at the rocks at the side of the road again, and she hastily lunged out of Eddie's way in a desperate attempt to grab one of the rocks. She grabbed one of the heavy rocks with both of her hands, turning her head to look at Eddie. He had his knife poised and ready to impale her, and he was dangerously close to doing so. Kasha resorted to kicking him in the groin, _again_, merely so she could catch a window to evade his attack. Eddie's movements stunted as the agonizing pain pulsated from his groin again, and Kasha took the opportunity to run around him. She'd managed to get a good couple of feet away from him. She stood there, glaring at him, holding the rock in both of her hands. _Waiting. _

This was her last chance. She needed to run at him, tackle him to the ground, and smash his fucking face in with this rock. _It was all she could do. _It was now or never. The attack was going to be a bold move, but she had nothing else to lose right now. She would rather die fighting.

Kasha then charged at him, trying to gain as much speed as possible, then lunged at him. Eddie, taken off guard by her sudden advances, didn't have much time to react. Kasha flung herself at him and successfully tackled him, his body falling flat on it's back against the road. Kasha held the rock up high over his head.

"Looks like the tables have turned now, bucko. And, guess what? I'm going to leave your body here to _rot _in the street. _Like some fucking road kill. _It's been _real _fun, Ed, but I think I'd much rather watch your head smash like a fucking watermelon."

"You _liked _it, you little _**whore. **_You liked it when I touched you, didn't you?" He growled, glaring into her eyes.

"_Really? _You want _that _to be your last words? Hey, alright. Your choice." Her arms began to fall down.

"We could have been _beautiful, _darling..."

Kasha barely heard him say it. It was barely audible through his strained breathing. Kasha's rock descended down on to Eddie's face with a sickening _thwack_, breaking Eddie's nose instantly. Eddie cried out, his hands shooting up to his face as an automatic reflexive response.

For a moment, Kasha felt guilty.

_But only for a moment. _

She brought the rock down on to his face a second time. Then a third, then a fourth, then a fifth, until his body stopped moving beneath her.

Kasha was nearly hyperventilating. She stopped pounding his face in for a moment, observing the crushed in bloody mess that used to be his face. For good measure, Kasha proceeded to smash the rock into his face a couple more times. Just in case. Blood splattered all over her forearms, and her stab wound certainly wasn't agreeing with Kasha's excessive use of her arms.

Kasha dropped the rock, then, and shakingly rose to her feet. _She did it. _She couldn't believe it.

She felt like jumping up and down and clapping with excitement, but she'd save that for when she got back to California. When she got back home, she was going to throw a fucking _party. _She took a minute to savor her kill, satisfaction and closure swelling up within her. But most of all, she finally felt _safe. Truly _safe. It was a sensation that she hadn't felt in well over three years.

She shook her head. "All of that ego... All of those delusions. All ended with a rock to your face." She said, speaking to Eddie's corpse. "You're probably better off this way, you know. Now, you're _free _of all of your... _Kinks _and _defects. _Free from your insanity. I just did you a _favor._" She had no idea why she was talking to his beaten corpse, but it felt good. She knelt beside his corpse and picked up his knife, clutching it in her hand as she then rose to her her feet again.

She gave his corpse one final look before turning her back on him, and began her long walk down the road back to civilization.

_It was finally over._

_The Mount Massive nightmare was **over.**_

~/~

It was as warm as ever in California.

Particularly, it was humid as all hell in the apartment that Kasha shared with her three sisters. Merely a week had passed since the incidents of Mount Massive, and Kasha had only _just _managed to make it back home last night.

"God, you really had to go through... _All _of that? And you're _still sane? _Jesus, Kasha, that's ridiculous." Misha said, with a somewhat relieved sigh. Misha had straight, blonde hair that hung down to her shoulders in length. Her eyes were a lovely green-blue, and they stared at Kasha with great concern.

Kasha shrugged, staring at the floor. "I don't even care anymore, honestly. All that matters to me right now is being here, right now, with you guys. It's... It's a fucking _miracle _that I'm alive, guys. You have no idea." Kasha huffed, the memories of Eddie and the asylum flashing through her mind.

Crystal, a slender woman with the palest skin out of all of them, entered the room with a glass of water for Kasha. Crystal's incredibly long, almost _gray _hair was the most attractive feature about her aside from her gorgeous, piercing blue eyes. She silently took a seat next to Kasha, giving her a one armed hug supportingly.

Yumi, the third and last of Kasha's sisters, sat next to Misha opposite of Crystal and Kasha. She had her hands in her lap, her fiery red hair tumbling down over her breasts. "I'm just... _Really _glad to see you again, Kasha. We all are. It's been _years. _We thought you were dead." Yumi said, fidgeting with the fabric of her pink skirt. "It's been hell for the three of us here." She finally made eye contact with Kasha.

Kasha buckled over in laughter. "Oh, _you _think that you've been in hell? _Really? _Oh, fuck. You have _no _idea what I've been enduring for the past three years, then."

Yumi rolled her eyes. Her sister had always been... _Inconsiderate _to other people's sympathy, so she let it slide. Yumi was a woman of manners. She narrowed her green eyes. "_No, _we _don't _know what you've been through, actually. Do you... Feel like talking about it?"

Misha, Yumi, and Crystal all looked at each other. They both shared a unanimously concerned gaze. They were still in complete disbelief that Kasha was even sitting in the same room as them right now.

"... I mean, when you came home, you were..." Crystal finally interjected, usually being the quietest of the four of them. "... You were _covered _in dirt and grime. And your arm..." Crystal looked down at Kasha's now bandaged up right forearm, where Eddie had inflicted his final wound on her.

Kasha took a deep breath, and exhaled sharply through her nose. "It's a long story. But, you guys deserve some closure. Mount Massive basically kept me on lock down the entire time that I worked there, because Murkoff was working on some seriously _fucked up _shit, and they didn't want their secrets getting out. They couldn't risk it. So, _that's _why all of your letters and texts to me never got to me. Murkoff intercepted them. _No one _working at Mount Massive was allowed to speak to their friends and family."

The three of them looked at her, baffled. "Shouldn't that be, like, _illegal? _That's inhumane to the employees!" Misha preached, anger hitching in her voice.

"They _were _their own laws, Misha. The whole damned facility was hidden up in the Colorado mountains. It took me... God, _so long _to get back to civilization after I escaped. The asylum went to hell, and their secret little Frankenstein project went haywire." Kasha shook her head, sighing. She didn't even want to think about it right now. Or talk about it. But they deserved to know.

"And this-" Kasha lifted her bandaged arm. "- was caused by some fucking _lunatic _that wanted to marry me and have children with me. God, I was _so _thankful for me degree in psychology when I was dealing with that fucker. I had to wear a mask the _entire time _that I was around him. I had to _fuel _his sick little fantasies. I even let him, uh, _touch _me, and..." She trailed off, her eyes at the floor. She hadn't even touched that glass of water yet.

Yumi's eyes widened, her jaw clenching. "If you're about to tell me that you got _raped, _I'm gonna feel an itching desire to commit murder in about 3.5 seconds."

Kasha waved her hand dismissively. "No, no. _Luckily. _I had to manipulate him to save my own ass, so I was... _Playing the part. _And, in the end, he was my last roadblock between me and coming home to you guys." Kasha paused, reliving the memories of her final encounter with Eddie. The vivid memory of his smashed in face flashed in her mind.

"... I smashed his fucking face in with a rock, and left him to rot in the road like a dead animal. Which is exactly what he is – _a dead animal._" Kasha stated, her face stone cold and apathetic as she remembered the encounter with clear detail. She then looked up at her three sisters, a small grin tugging at her face.

"And, let me tell you, it felt _so good._"

Misha, Yumi, and Crystal looked deeply concerned. Kasha had changed. Everything with Mount Massive had _clearly _taken a small tole on her, and she... She just wasn't the same anymore. The Kasha that _they _knew wouldn't be acting so genuinely _homicidal _about basic survival. Sure, she would joke about murdering people before, but this was different.

"Kasha... I _really _don't like that look in your eyes." Yumi outright stated, her eyes narrowed.

"What look? Okay, _look_ – What I've gone through would change _anybody. _Do you have any idea how many people I killed in cold blood _just _to have a chance of coming back home to you three? I mean, it's good that you're all concerned, but for fuck's sake – A little sense of _understanding _would be really fucking great right now." She figured she would need to justify herself eventually. She couldn't deny that she'd changed. Even throughout her journey after the breakout of Mount Massive, Kasha observed herself becoming... Progressively more and more _passive _and _apathetic _to committing murder.

For instance, when she had to kill all of those men in order to form an "audience" for her and Eddie's wedding.

It had become so... _Casual _to her.

"All I'm saying is that you three have nothing to worry about, okay? I'm not gonna murder you in the middle of the night or anything. All I want to do now is focus on finding a new job, and resuming my life here with you guys. Because I fought like fucking _hell _to get here. And, uh, I love you guys." Kasha almost muttered the last part. She'd always been incredibly awkward about displaying affection, and it was only just then that she'd realized that she'd _never once_, in the 10+ years that she'd known these three girls, told them that she loved them.

The three of them each gave a small, warm smile in response.

Yumi pounced on Kasha, then. "Well, WELCOME HOME!" She excitedly yelled, wrapping her arms around her sister. "Now, let's go do something _productive. _Enough of this depressing stuff. How about we go to the beach or something?"

Kasha grumbled. "Eeeegh, I kind of _was _hoping to take a long ass nap and a long enough shower to use up all of the hot water, honestly..."

"You're doing that _after. _I don't wanna hear it from you, you grumpy turd. C'mon, let's go!" And with that, Kasha got dragged along with the three of them out the front door.

Kasha had her life back.

And she wouldn't have had it any other way.

~/~

**Author's Note: **So, which ending do _you _like better? Let me know in the reviews! Thank you for reading. ;)


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